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LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 


PRINCETON. N. J. 





PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND. 


BV 3420 .T5 S4 1925 
Shelton, A. L. 1875-1922. 
Pioneering in Tibet 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/pioneeringintibeOOshel 


Pioneering in Tibet 


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ALBERT L. SHELTON, M.D. 


Pioneering in Tibet 


A Personal Record of Life and 
Experience in Mission Fields 


By 
ALBERT L. SHELTON, M.D. 


New York CHICAGO 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 


Copyright, 1921, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Dedicated 


TO THOSE WHO DIED 
IN THE FIGHT 



















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Contents 


GETTING READY . . 
GOING , : ; : 
Wuat WE Founp . 

LEARNING TO TALK 

Across CHINA TO MEET OGDEN 
PROSPECTING . 

Move To BATANG 

First OPERATION IN BATANG . 
GETTING READY To BuILpD 
Mepicat Work 

PR lcGOrlIs oy, : : ‘ 
Dr. Harpy ComEs . 
HOMEWARD BouND TO TIBET . 
ARRIVAL 

DRAYA 

BUILDING AND IRRIGATING 
ITINERATING 

More ITINERATING . 
VISITORS ; ; 
VISITING THE BaD Lanps 
UNREST . 

War NEGOTIATIONS 
CHAMDO . 


IOI 
106 
III 
114 
123 
127 
136 


8 


XXIV. 
XXV, 
XXVI. 
XXVII. 
XXVIII. 


XXIX. 
XXX. 
XXXI. 
XXXII. 
XXXII. 


XXXIV. 
XXXV, 


CONTENTS 


Opium . - 5 ; . ‘ 
Goop-ByYE 

CAPTURED BY ROBBERS . 
TRAVELLING WITH THE BAND 


FATHER BAILLY—FAILURE OF NEGOTI- 
ATIONS 


SHOOTING A MAN 
THE First BATTLE 
A Visit—LeEtTTeErs 
DROPPED 

ESCAPE 


Home AGAIN f : 
Come On! . ; : ‘ 


143 
151 
159 
167 


174 
179 
187 
193 
199 
204 
208 
214 


Illustrations 


Apert L. SHetton, M.D. . : : ‘ . Frontispiece 
Facing page 

Looxinc Across MeExonGc FroM Top oF Pass Near YEN 
Jur (Sart Weuts) . ° ; é ; ; ~ 44 
One oF THE ImMaces In Yara Gono TEMPLE F ’ 3 108 


Baptizinc, Gwa Gwanc anp Mr. McLeop Orriciatinc . 138 


Doris anp Dorotuy 1n TipeTan CLOTHES, WITH SOME OF 
Tuerr Frienps : : : : ‘ ¥ eles 


1 ved 


ah ae 





I 
GETTING READY 


WAS born in Indianapolis, Indiana, 9th day of 
i June, 1875. When I was about five years old my 

parents moved to Kansas, so that I have no recollec- 
tion of Indiana at that time at all except being in a boat 
one day with my father, and another time seeing a black- 
smith shop. 

I do remember, however, our arrival in Kansas, when 
my father, who had gone through in a wagon, came down 
to meet my mother and us two children. Fred was then 
just a baby. 

We lived near Pawnee, in Bourbon County, where I 
first started to school. After two years there we moved 
out to Harper County, down by Ruella, where we lived 
for some five years. 

During these years I went to school to different 
teachers. The first school which I attended was taught 
by one of the home girls, who was only about sixteen 
years old. She had in school five or six boys who were 
about ten or eleven years old and who, knowing her so 
well, were rather hard to control. 

One day she had told us we were not to go near the 
ereek, which was near the schoolhouse, but five of us 
slipped off and went in swimming. Time passed very 
much more rapidly than we had thought during the noon 
hour, and the first intimation that it was over was seeing 
her standing on a little rise about one hundred yards 
from the creek and ringing the bell. 

There was considerable difficulty in getting clothes on 

11 


12 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


to wet bodies with what we considered requisite speed. 
However, it was accomplished and we returned to the 
schoolhouse some ten minutes late. 

The teacher was very stern and she called one of the 
larger girls, to whom it was an exceedingly great pleas- 
ure, to go out and get some switches. We considered 
that she got them unnecessarily large. However, be that 
as it may, the teacher lined the five of us up on the floor. 
We thought our day had come but the first boy in line 
saved us. She had made up her mind to give us a good 
thrashing. When she drew back the switch the boy let 
out a tremendous yell which frightened her and so took 
from her her presence of mind that she only gave him 
four licks. As she had only given him four licks she 
could only give the rest of us four licks, so we got off 
easily. 

My father wasn’t so easily frightened, however, as he © 
had promised that every time we got a thrashing in 
school we’d get another when we got home. This promise 
he very faithfully kept. 

Another teacher was Mr. Titus, afterward Senator 
from the district. 

After some two years in Harper County, eh when I 

was about eleven or twelve years of age, we moved again. 
This time we all went in a covered wagon from Harper 
County to Grant County, a distance of about two hun- 
dred miles. It was great fun for us children. We had 
four horses to the wagon and just before leaving my 
uncle completed my happiness by giving me a little Flo- 
bert rifle and a thousand rounds of ammunition. So far 
as I could see there was nothing else to wish for in this 
life, and under my father’s direction I was allowed to 
shoot morning and night at such things as might be 
available around camp. 


GETTING READY 13 


After arriving in Grant County we located on a Home- 
stead eleven miles to the northeast of Ulysses, a very 
beautiful country, perfectly level, covered with a solid 
mat of buffalo grass, and not a tree within many miles. 

During the years spent on this Homestead I was grow- 
ing very rapidly and took a share of the work. One of 
my jobs was to haul water. We could not afford a well, 
as it was some two hundred and fifty feet to water and 
cost a great deal of money to dig, so I hauled water from 
- Conductor, a little town some six miles to the west, where 
there was a township well. 

I drove two oxen and hauled the water in five barrels, 
placing them in the bed of the wagon. There were a 
great many other people who hauled water from this 
place also, and sometimes there would be as many as 
twenty or thirty wagons filled with barrels waiting for 
water, and many times there would be races to see who 
would get to the well first. It is not easy racing with an 
ox team but it can be done. 

My avocation those days was killing rattlesnakes. 
There were a great many and I saved all the rattles, at 
one time having a cigar box full. 

Another thing at which I spent a great deal of time 
and which was the means of enabling me to earn some 
money, was the killing of gophers, ground squirrels, 
skunks, coyotes, and jack-rabbits, on all of which there 
was a bounty from five cents on the smaller game to a 
dollar on the coyotes. 

There were one or two occasions when I took my scalps 
to town on Saturday and to bring my father home after 
his week’s work in town at carpentry, on which my earn- 
ings for the week were equal to those of my father, which 
made me very proud. 

There were antelopes and wild horses all around the 


14 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


country, too, for the first two or three years. The herd 
of eleven wild horses which grazed near our place were 
all caught during the first two years we were there, with 
the exception of three. 

These three consisted of the black stallion that led the 
herd, one buckskin and one bay mare. These were the 
best of the herd and, because they were the best, people 
were the more anxious to eatch them. 

An outfit finally eame from Texas for the express pur- 
pose of catching these three. They ran them for three 
days and nights without ceasing, changing horses many 
times until finally the stallion was caught. He had been 
shot formerly in an attempt to crease him and he was no 
good, as his wind was broken. 

The buckskin mare was lassoed, and six months after- 
ward would come at call to any place on the range and 
was a most excellent animal. 

The bay mare would never give up. She ran and ran 
for some hours after the other two had succumbed and, 
while still running at full speed, fell down dead. 

During these years it was necessary in going to school 
to walk some four miles. In the winter time we had to 
get up before daylight and start just as soon as it became 
light in order to get there on time. 

We finally got a little school not far from home in a 
dugout, taught by one of the neighbour girls. 

After some years in that part of Grant County, we 
moved over west of Ulysses, about seven miles from town. 

I had also spent one or two winters in Ulysses in 
school, which had given me a greater desire than I had 
ever had before to attend school. 

I attended the Teachers’ Normal Institutes during the 
summer and the winter after I was seventeen, taught my 
first school down in Morton County, about twenty-five 


GETTING READY 15 


miles from home. I would go home perhaps once @ 
month, walking after four o’clock on Friday after- 
noon. 

I am first and above all a product of my friends. I 
have been made by them, and during these early school 
years my life was influenced greatly by the teachers 
whom I had, most of them men and women of an ex- 
ceedingly high type. 

I cannot refrain from mentioning one in particular, 
Miss Preston, who was my teacher during one winter 
that I spent at Anthony, Kansas. It was at this time 
that I went back to my grandmother’s for the purpose of 
going to school. 

I spent the year following my first year in teaching, 
clerking for my uncle in Leoti, Scott County. There I 
was blessed with another great influence in my life, my 
unele and his good wife. 

T taught again the following winter in Ulysses, our 
County Seat, but this was to be my last school, and the 
fall I was twenty, that is, in 1895, I went away to Em- 
poria to school. It was a great undertaking and no one 
knew what would be the outcome. 

When I reached Emporia I had $9.25. That lasted 
me for eight years. During the following years while I 
was in Emporia, I carried the Kansas City Star, I did 
janitor work, I eut corn, I took care of cows, I took care 
of furnaces for some of the professors, and after I had 
finished the course in mathematics, I did a great deal of 
tutoring for Professor Bailey. 

During these strenuous years, in 1898, the war with 
Spain came on. Against the advice of friends and 
professors I enlisted in Company H of the 22nd Kansas, 
which company consisted of students from the three 
State institutions, 


16 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


We never got farther than Camp Alger, but it was 
good experience, and we were mustered out within about 
six months of enlistment. 

I went back to school with about one hundred dollars 
in money, which I had saved, as I remember. I put it in 
the First National Bank for safe keeping on Friday and 
on Monday the president shot himself, the bank having 
failed. However, I was in no worse condition than IL 
had always been. 

The following spring, while still in school, I got two 
days leave of absence and went down to Parsons and got 
married. The young lady was Miss Flo Beal, whom I 
had met the previous year at the State Normal. 

When we got back to Emporia on the evening train 
there were four hundred students who had, in some mys- 
terious way, heard of our marriage, and were waiting for 
the train. Amongst them were three or four of my for- 
mer comrades in Company H, armed with a blanket, and 
they proceeded to blanket me right there on the plat- 
form. 

This blanketing consists of throwing the person some 
ten or twelve feet in the air and letting him fall back on 
the blanket. They sueceeded, however, in letting me fall 
out of the blanket and I was momentarily stunned, but 
no damage was done. That night, after eating up all 
the wedding cake Mrs. Shelton had brought and embar- 
rassing us to the limit of their ability, they showed their 
hearty good will by presenting us with two lovely rock- 
ing-chairs in which we are still sitting. 

Perhaps the greatest influence of my life during the 
years in Emporia was Professor Iden, now in Michigan 
University at Ann Arbor. He inspired all “Upper 
Room’’ boys with the highest ideals of life, and gave them 
the determination to make their lives count in the world. 


GETTING READY 17 


The year following my marriage, near the middle of 
the year, I obtained through President Taylor a scholar- 
ship in the medical department of Kentucky University. 
I was, however, unable to take advantage of it owing to 
my financial condition. 

Mr. C. A. Boyle, superintendent of the buildings and 
grounds for whom I was doing janitor work, said to me 
one day, ‘‘ Well, Shelly, what you going to do about that 
Medical School?’’ I replied, ‘‘ Well, Boss, it isn’t any 
use thinkin’ about it because it can’t be done.”’ 

That afternoon he came into the little room where I 
was and laid a check for one hundred dollars on my 
table, and said, ‘‘Now get out of here. I don’t want to 
see you around any more.’’ 

It touched me very deeply. I told him that I could 
offer no security and that I might not be able to pay it 
back. He said, ‘‘Who’s talking about security? Get 
out and go on and be quick about it.’’ 

I went, leaving Mrs. Shelton to finish the school year. 

During the following summer I worked in the harvest 
field with the threshing machine and, when that work 
was finished, went to Wyoming as worker on a railroad 
construction gang. When I had drawn my pay I went 
at once to the post-office and bought an order for the 
balance still owing Mr. Boyle. 

When I had done so I had no money with which to go 
home. There was only sufficient for a few meals. I 
made arrangements with a brakeman to travel in a coal- 
ear with twenty other tramps. 

After arriving in Denver I was put, by the next brake- 
man, in the ice-box of a refrigerator car, the most cramped 
position I ever held. After a day and night in this I 
was forced to come out and consequently got put off the 
train. 


18 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


I finally arrived at Ellsworth, Kansas, and walked the 
sixty miles across to Hutchinson, where I found an old 
friend and borrowed enough money to get home. 

But the big thing was done—I was out of debt again. 

The four years in Medical College were perhaps as 
difficult as had been the former four years. I, however, 
partly made my way by tutoring in chemistry some of 
the boys who were deficient in that branch. 

During two years of the time that I was in Medical 
College Mrs. Shelton taught school, as she had been doing 
for some years before our marriage. 

During these early years I had a desire to be a 
preacher, but I had decided that I wasn’t good enough to 
be a preacher, so I had decided to be a doctor, the alter- 
native as I thought, and the next best thing by which to 
live a life of usefulness. 

I had also, through friends in college and otherwise, 
especially Professor and Mrs. Kelly and through H. P. 
Scott, a former Normal Institute instructor, and others, 
made up my mind to be a missionary. I had applied, 
during my third year in Medical College, for an appoint- 
ment to the Foreign Christian Missionary Society in 
Cincinnati. The reply to my application had been to go 
on and finish my college work first and then they would 
see. 

Three months before I graduated I again applied, 
with the result that after asking for references to whom 
they could write, the Society informed me, through A. 
McLean, that it would be impossible to send out any 
more men that year. 

This was a great disappointment, but couldn’t be 
helped. I therefore formed a partnership with Dr. J. 
H. Henson, of Mound Valley, with whom I had worked 
the previous year. 


II 
GOING 


Dr. Henson because a few days before graduation 

I received another letter from Mr. McLean, presi- 
dent of the Foreign Society, asking me to come to Cin- 
cinnati for a personal conference. I went. 

Mr. McLean handed me a note asking me if I could 
take it out to Dr. Kilgour, which I did. 

Dr. Kilgour made a thorough physiccl examination of 
me and sent a note something after this fashion back to 
Mr. McLean. ‘‘If this man’s qualifications in other lines 
are as good as they are physically, he’ll be all right, be- 
cause he’s certainly the best animal I’ve seen in a long 
time.”’ 

Mr. McLean again asked me if I could amuse myself 
by going out to the Zoo till seven o’clock in the evening. 
I told him I could take care of myself all right until 
seven o’clock, which was the time at which the Executive 
Committee was to meet. 

I came in and found there another young man, Mr. 
Roberts. I asked him where he was thinking of going 
and he said he was going to Tibet with Dr. Rijnhart. 
I was pretty much seared to death when I went in before 
the committee. Every eye in the room seemed to be bor- 
ing a hole through me and the questions they asked and 
the answers which I had to give, led me to believe that 
my chances of appointment were not greater than the 
proverbial snowball. 


| WAS not, however, to get to practice again with 


19 


20 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


I went out into the hall when they had finished with 
me and said to Roberts, ‘‘ Well, I guess I had just as well 
be going. There will be no chance for me.’’ He said, 
‘‘Wait a little anyhow.’’ 

A few minutes later they all filed out. Mr. McLean 
came over, put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘‘ Well, 
Doetor, you’re going to China.’’ 

It was a great transition. One incident especially, 
during this time, impressed itself upon my mind, It 
was the question of Mr. F. M. Rains, Secretary of the 
Foreign Society. 

He said in his own way, ‘‘ Well, Doctor, what ever 
made you want to be a missionary anyhow?’”’ After 
talking for some time, when I was leaving, taking my 
hand in his, putting one hand on my shoulder, he said, 
‘Well, don’t get discouraged. Remember the Lord’s 
not dead yet.’’? These words have been a source of con- 
stant courage and strength through all the years. 

Shortly before time for our sailing I received a letter 
from Mr. Rains in which he stated that for two years the 
Society had been looking for some one to go to Tibet 
with Dr. Rijnhart, but had been unable to find any one 
and they wanted to ask Mrs. Shelton and myself whether 
we would consider it. 

We talked it over and, as the letter was to be answered 
by wire, drove over to the railroad station from Mrs. 
Shelton’s home, where we were visiting, and sent the 
answer that we would be glad to go. 

In September, 1903, we began our journey. Arriving 
at San Francisco we met Dr. Rijnhart for the first time. 

Dr. Rijnhart had created a great deal of interest in 
Tibet by her speaking, after her return from the jour- 
ney into that country. During this time she had lost her 
baby, her husband had disappeared and she had been 


GOING 21 


left alone in that far land to make her way back as best 
she could to civilization. 

Her story was pronounced to be the most thrilling ac- 
count of missionary work in recent times. 

Two or three days before the ship China, on which we 
were going, was to sail, it was thought that as there was 
no minister in the party, it was best that I be ordained, 
which ceremony was conducted by Mr. Walter M. White, 
assisted by some of the other brethren in San Francisco. 

The journey across the Pacific was, of course, very 
wonderful to us young people from far inland. We en- 
joyed it and I learned on this ship the sure cure for sea- 
sickness, but whether or not this cure has ever been pat- 
ented I am unable to say. Mr. Madden, of Japan, who 
was on the boat, in trying to console Mrs. Shelton, would 
go by on his trips around the deck, furiously chewing 
gum, with the remark in passing, ‘‘The only way to keep 
from getting seasick is to keep going and chew gum.’’ 

In passing once, however, it was noticed that he had 
to very hastily remove his gum from his mouth and step 
to the railing. When asked what he was doing he re- 
plied, ‘‘ Just making my little contribution to the fishes,’’ 
repossessed himself of his gum and went on his way. 

The impressions in Japan were terrible. We saw the 
women doing the work which we had seen only men do 
in America. The first sight of these things makes an 
impression that is indelible. 

The other sight in Japan that made the greatest im- 
pression on me was the Stars and Stripes floating from 
the flagstaff of the Consulate. 

On arriving in Shanghai it was necessary to stop for 
a few days in preparation for the trip through China. 
Dr. Rijnhart had remained over in Japan for one 
steamer to do some speaking. 


22 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


At length, however, we were ready and took the boat 
for Nanking, the seat of the largest work of our Central 
China Mission. 

Here we met Dr. Macklin and Mr. Meigs, as well as 
all the other members of our China Mission. Mr. Meigs 
was exceedingly helpful in that he furnished us with two 
men who were indispensable. One was Mr. Yang, who 
went as a Chinese evangelist, and the other was 
‘* Johnny,’’ who went as our cook. 

Soon we were off again and now we were really 
started. The trip to Hankow was without special inci- 
dent. Our missionaries at Wuhu came down to see us. 
At Hankow it was necessary to change from the large 
down-river steamers to the small up-river steamers for 
Ichang. 

Arrival at Ichang put an end to all rapid transpor- 
tation, as at that time no steamers were going farther 
up-river. Here the mode of travel had to be changed 
entirely. 

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ammundson of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, Dr. Rijnhart, Mrs. Shelton ana 
myself secured a large house-boat on which all of our be- 
longings were placed, including Mr. Ammundson’s stock 
of Scriptures for opening the work of the Bible Society 
in Yunnan Province. 

Then began, perhaps, the most memorable part of the 
whole journey, the trip up through the gorges of the 
Upper Yangtze and the long journey into Chungking. 
This part of the journey took us about a month. 

Our house-boat was pulled by about forty coolies, 
walking along the shore and pulling on a large bamboo 
rope. 

These coolies, it seemed to me, were the most miserable 
people that I had ever seen. Some of them had scarcely 


GOING 23 


any clothing at all, and the little they had was ragged 
and dirty. Some of them had festering wounds, but 
were still compelled to go on and on day after day doing 
this work. 

The head man would go along the shore with a piece 
of bamboo rope, which he used as a whip, and it was in 
China that I first saw human beings struck as we use a 
whip on an ox to make him work harder. 

I did what I could at nights or at meal times for those 
who were ill or who had wounds, and had I been two 
men instead of one, one would have stayed to minister to 
those thousands of coolies up and down this river. 

Arriving in Chungking, we were very graciously taken 
in by Dr. and Mrs. McCartney of the American Meth- 
odist Mission. After a short stay we were on again for 
the last stage of the river journey, only another three 
weeks or a little more to Kiating. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ammundson left us at Suifu. 

At Kiating we stopped with Mr. and Mrs. Ririe of the 
China Inland Mission. Mr. Ririe, who was a very quiet 
man, during the next few days could be seen occasionally 
chuckling to himself, and when asked what was amusing 
him would say that he was seeing a boy eating pumpkin 
pie, the story of which Mrs. Shelton had told him a day or 
two before. The boy had said that he always hated to 
eat pumpkin pie because it always got his ears so dirty. 

It was here that we met our first Tibetan. He was 
the King of Tachienlu, on his way to Chentu, the capital 
of the Province. 

He had come down with Mr. Sorensen, who had come 
to Kiating to get married. 

The King was suffering from some sort of minor ail- 
ment and he asked Mr. Sorensen to have me come over 
to see him. It was thus that I had my first Tibetan 


24 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


patient, and thus was begun a friendship which has 
lasted throughout all these years. 

From here our mode of travel had to be changed once 
more. All our goods were transferred from the boat to 
bamboo rafts, and they were to go on for the next stage 
of the journey to Yachow. 

It was at Kiating that we first heard that war had 
been declared between Japan and Russia. Before 
going on farther into the interior, it was deemed 
advisable that I should go up to the capital, Chentu, and 
find out whether or not this war was likely to affect the 
internal conditions of China. 

It was here also that we met Mr. Endicott, of the 
Canadian Methodist Mission, and who has since become 
the General Secretary. 

When we arrived at Yachow we met Mr. and Mrs. 
Openshaw and Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, of the Baptist Mis- 
sion. There we had a few days’ rest getting ready for 
the last stage of the journey. 

We had now been on the way since the latter part of 
September, and at this time it was early March. It was 
very gratifying indeed to have this bit of rest and to hear 
Mr. Taylor sing. His classic was ‘‘Clementine,’’ which 
Mrs. Shelton, who was playing for him, had never heard 
before. But it broke up the meeting when the ‘‘roses 
growing over her grave were fertilized by Clementine.’’ 
Mrs. Shelton was feeling rather sorrowful over Clemen- 
tine but, before the close of the verse, she simply 
stopped playing and turned and looked at Mr. Taylor 
with astonishment written all over her face. This 
marked the end of the concert. 

A few days later we started into the mountains. All 
our baggage and boxes were on men’s backs, ourselves in 
sedan chairs, being carried by men. This was too mueh 


GOING 25 


for me. I didn’t mind having people work for me, but 
to be carried by them was just a little too much, so I had 
the chair carried along, but I walked most of the way. 

Some of the passes, though not exceedingly high, not 
more than nine or ten thousand feet, were very difficult, 
being covered with snow and ice. 

The misery and suffering endured by the tea carriers, 
who carried great loads of tea, sometimes as many as 
twenty bundles of fifteen pounds each, over the moun- 
tains of Yachow to Tachienlu were very great. Some of 
them were old men, who had been carrying for years, 
and could now carry only a few bundles. Some were 
young men in their prime, who earried the heaviest 
loads. Some were young boys, not more than twelve or 
fourteen years old, trudging along with their fathers, 
earrying a few bundles. 

I saw one man who had become ill and had lain down 
in the road and died there. He lay there until he be- 
came a nuisance, when he was taken a few feet back from 
the side of the road and buried. The other coolies who 
eame along had simply walked around him or stepped 
over him and gone on. 

I think my greatest trial was to see the utter indiffer- 
ence to human suffering and the cheapness of human life 
in the Orient. 

At last, after seven days, we were within one day of 
Tachienlu, and on the morrow we would arrive. 


ITI 
WHAT WE FOUND 


r- “AHE next morning we were out bright and early 
and on our way. The last day’s journey was a 
continuous climb from an altitude of less than 

three thousand feet to eight thousand five hundred feet, 

along the rolling river which comes down from Tach- 
ienlu. 

After we had had dinner at the half-way place we 
were on again, and about four o’clock in the afternoon, 
in a heavy snow-storm, we were met by Mr. Moyes, who 
had come out a mile or two to meet us. 

It was not until this time that we realized that a ro- 
mance was in the air. Mr. Moyes had been the first 
white person Dr. Rijnhart had met on her escape from 
Tibet some years before, after having lost her husband 
and child, and he told me afterward that when he met 
her, although she was dressed in dirty sheepskin clothes 
and was almost black from exposure, as soon as he saw 
her, without even knowing who she was or from whence 
she came, he knew that she was the one who would be 
his wife. 

Mr. Moyes had very kindly rented for us in advance a 
Tibetan inn. The floors of this inn were covered with 
dirt inches thick which he had had taken out with a 
shovel. He had papered two rooms in which we were to 
live for some time. We at once set about trying to rent 
a house, which with his help was accomplished in a short 
time, and then began the process of remodelling, which 

26 


WHAT WE FOUND 27 


was very difficult, as I could speak but very few words of 
Chinese. 

I secured a teacher from Chentu and we began the 
study of Chinese. It is necessary for workers on the 
border of Tibet to know both Chinese and Tibetan. 

After some months our house was ready for occupancy 
and we moved into the place which we were to occupy 
for nearly five years. We were very comfortable but 
had nostove. All our warming, and the winters are very 
cold, had to be done with charcoal brasiers. 

Mrs. Shelton became quite ill while we were staying 
at the inn, but as spring came on she improved very 
rapidly and was again well by the time we moved into 
our new quarters. 

Dr. Rijnhart began at once her work with the Chinese 
and Tibetan women. She had brought with her from 
Kiating a young girl, Manyin, who was to be her com- 
panion and helper in the work. Dr, Rijnhart was 
greatly needed in this place, for there was no doctor 
nearer than Yachow, eight days away. 

I had intended to do no medical work for some time, 
but to give my full time to study. This, however, was 
impossible, as there were cases that must be attended to 
in a surgical way at once. Many eases of frost bites and 
consequent gangrene were coming in at this time, sword 
cuts, gunshot wounds, and attempted suicides by opium 
were all things that could not be let go, so it was 
necessary that I combine work with study. 

Shortly after we had occupied our home it became nec- 
essary to rent a place for the medical work and for a 
preaching shop and for a school. This was secured 
through the help of Mr. Moyes and Mr. Yang, the 
evangelist whom we had brought from Nanking. Mr. 
Yang carried on the meetings under the direction of 


28 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Dr. Rijnhart and he created a great deal of interest, as 
he was by far the best educated man in that part of the 
country. 

However, nothing was yet being done except medically 
for the Tibetans. None of us except Dr. Rijnhart 
could speak any Tibetan. One of the things at this 
time which worried me considerably was the apparent 
disregard of the truth by the Chinese merchants at the 
place. I did some buying on the street with Mr. Young 
himself, and it was a source of consternation to me that 
a merchant, after he had declared up and down that the 
cost price was so much, after haggling for a certain 
length of time, Mr. Young would be able to secure the 
article for less than half that amount. 

I said to Mr. Young on one occasion, ‘‘ That man cer- 
tainly lied to you. He sold you that article for so much. 
He had just declared that the cost price was more than 
that, and I do not believe that he sold it to you for less 
than the cost.’? He replied, ‘‘Of course he didn’t, but 
that is not lying, that is the custom.’’ 


IV 
LEARNING TO TALK 


URING this time I was giving all of my morn- 

1) ings entirely to study. I studied the book until 

I got tired; then I took the teacher and went 

with him into the street to practice what I had learned. 

In the afternoon I did the surgical work that was neces- 
sary to be done. 

One day a little child whose hand was gone was 
brought in. We asked what had become of the hand and 
the mother replied that she had left the child lying on 
the floor while she was out working in the garden, and a 
pig had eaten it off. 

After about a year or less I began the study of Ti- 
betan. My old Tibetan teacher was very intelligent in 
some ways. However, he was thoroughly superstitious, 
as a great many of the Tibetans are. Coming into the 
courtyard one day he was limping. I said to him, 
‘‘Gigen (teacher), what’s the matter with your foot?’’ 
‘‘Why,’’ he replied, ‘‘just as I was coming up the alley 
here a devil hit me on the foot and made me lame.”’ 
‘‘Now,’’ I answered, ‘‘you know that is not so. You 
probably stepped on a rock and turned your ankle.’’ 
That made the old man quite angry, and he again re- 
plied, ‘‘Do you suppose I don’t know when a devil hits 
me?”’ 

Another day in the dispensary a band of soldiers came 
in from the interior. They were in a terrible state. 
They had had their hands and feet frozen for so long a 

29 


30 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


time that they were black with gangrene and rotting. 
The odour was terrific. That afternoon I cut off thirty- 
one fingers and toes. One of the party had suffered far 
worse than the rest. His legs were frozen half-way to 
the knee. He could not walk, but simply pulled himself 
along by his hands on the ground. Most of the flesh had 
fallen from the bones of the leg. The feet had dried 
hard and black. He was in a pitiful condition. It was 
necessary to amputate both legs just below the knee. 

I had not made as great success with Tibetan as with 
Chinese. The language appeared to me to be more diffi- 
cult to speak. I had studied the book, however, sev- 
eral hours each day with my teacher. One great diffi- 
culty was that I could speak Chinese and, when I didn’t 
understand, immediately he would translate for me into 
Chinese, with the result that I would forget the use of 
the word in Tibetan. I was able to read the written 
language fairly well, but when a man came into the dis- 
pensary and said, ‘‘Gne droba chig be nado Katro Katro 
Smen chiza pin ro,’’ I didn’t know what he was saying. 
But if I could see it written I knew very well that he had 
the stomach ache and wanted a little medicine. 

Consequently, becoming disgusted with my lack of suc- 
cess in learning Tibetan and my apparent inability to 
get a speaking knowledge of it, where every one was 
ready to translate into Chinese for me anything I might 
not be able to immediately understand, I threw my books 
aside, took two or three of the boys who were in school 
and started for the country. 

I went three days back into the country where there 
were no Chinese and where it was necessary to speak 
Tibetan or not speak at all, and spent some weeks in this 
way. During this time I learned the language as it was 
spoken. 


LEARNING TO TALK 31 


One day while on this trip two women came tome. I 
had been giving out medicine for some time and they 
said that they also wanted some medicine. I asked them 
what the trouble was. One said, answering for both, 
**She has just lost her husband. She has no children 
nor father nor mother and she has no one at all. _I, also, 
am a widow, but I had one son. About a month ago he 
died with smallpox and now I have no one. But the 
difficulty is that the pain in here,’’ pointing to her heart, 
‘‘never stops day nor night. We cannot sleep and we 
want some medicine to stop the pain so we can sleep.”’ 
What would you do in a ease like that? 

During our first summer in Tachienlu, Doris was born, 
and she was a source of great amusement to all our 
friends. 

One morning I was sleeping rather late and one of the 
schoolboys came into the room and shook me by the arm 
to waken me. I awakened suddenly and said, ‘‘ What is 
the matter?’’ He told me that a very big official had 
been shot and had sent a man to see if I could go to see 
him. I asked, ‘‘ Where is he?’’ He replied, ‘‘He is in 
Tyling about five days to the north of here.’’ I said, 
““Yes, I can go, but I haven’t any way to get there.’’ 
But the boy replied that the man had sent a mule for me 
to ride. So getting up and arranging my medicines and 
saddle-bags as quickly as possible, with the man from 
the official as guide, we started off about ten o’clock. 

We went very rapidly until far in the afternoon, when 
it began to rain. I had provided myself on coming out 
with a mackintosh which was supposed to turn water. 
This it did for a while, but it rained all night. We had 
passed, early in the afternoon, the last settlement in the 
valley and were going on and on toward the top of the 
pass. Near midnight at the foot of the last stage of the 


32 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


pass, we came to an old building occupied by some 
traders for the night. Their mule and yak were inside 
as well as their goods and themselves. They had built a 
large fire in one end of the room around which they were 
sitting. 

I was so cold and worn out that I said to the men, 
‘‘We will stop here for the rest of the night and go on 
in the morning.’’ We went inside and I stripped to my 
underelothes and began to dry out at the fire. 

Being somewhat dried and having eaten a little I at- 
tempted to go to sleep, but the place was infested with 
fleas, the smoke was exceedingly irritating, and sleep was 
impossible. So after an hour I got up, dressed, and told 
the men we would go on. 

We started over the pass at two o’clock in the morn- 
ing. It had stopped raining and the moon was shining, 
but before we had been on the road an hour the rain 
started again. 

Across the pass in the rain and in the dark, miserably 
eold and wet, with the glacier coming down to within a 
few hundred feet of the road, we went on and on till day 
began to dawn. 

By this time the mule which my guide was riding had 
given out and had been left behind. The mule which 
I was riding was so tired that it would lie down with me 
on it. I said to the men, ‘‘We will stop at the very next 
house,’’ but there were no houses, so we had to go on, 
riding until shortly before noon. 

At this time we rode into the gold camp where the 
wounded official was. The wound was some days old, 
had been sealed up according to Chinese fashion, had 
festered, the neck was tremendously swollen, and he was 
in great pain. Removing the coverings from the two 
openings of the gunshot wound in the neck, the pus 


LEARNING TO TALK 33 


shot out, but after washing and dressing the wounds, the 
pressure having been released, he was much more com- 
fortable. 

I then removed my clothing, which had by this time 
partially dried, dressed in some of the official’s Chi- 
nese clothes, and a little more than twenty-four hours 
from the time of starting, I was ready to go to bed. 

I slept till time for supper. 

I spent some ten days in this camp attending to this 
man and to many Tibetans who, hearing that I had 
come, came for treatment. 

It was here that I saw my first Chinese spanking. One 
of the workmen in the mines had stolen an ounce of gold, 
and the wounded official had his trial on the top of the 
Tibetan house where we were staying. The man did not 
deny his guilt and the official said, ‘‘Give him two thou- 
sand.’’ He was laid down, one man sat on his head, two 
others held down his feet, and a fourth with a small 
bamboo began applying the punishment. When he 
started I thought, ‘‘ Well, that is no more than he 
needs.’’ It was no harder than a parent would ordi- 
narily spank a child; but two thousand! At the end of 
the first two hundred the skin was considerably scuffed. 
At the end of five hundred the limbs were considerably 
swollen. Before the first thousand had been reached the 
skin was broken and the blood oozing out, and by the 
time the two thousand had been reached the back of 
both legs was like large beefsteaks. 

I asked and received permission to treat him also. 

At the end of ten days the official was so much im- 
proved that I was enabled to go home. He asked what 
my charges were. I told him that I made no definite 
charges, but those who were able to pay were supposed 
to make a donation to the hospital for the benefit of those 


34 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


who were not able to pay. He had brought out two 
hundred rupees which, he informed me, were for the 
hospital and for the poor people who were not able to 
pay. This was an exceedingly large fee for this coun- 
try. He said to me, ‘‘Now I want you to have something 
for yourself.’’ So saying, he signalled a man who came 
around from the corner of the house leading a large 
mule, all saddled and bridled, as a present tome. This 
was the largest fee I had ever received. I rode this mule 
many thousands of miles. 

One thing the Tibetan people are not able to under- 
stand is anesthetics, either local or general. I had, one 
day, a finger-nail on my left hand which had become in- 
fected and it was necessary to remove the nail. I was 
studying with my Tibetan teacher at the time. I reached 
up and got my hypodermic syringe and my pocket surgi- 
eal case, filled the syringe with a solution of cocaine and 
injected it under the nail, after which I took a small knife 
and, having loosened the nail, took a pair of forceps and 
removed it in its entirety. Of course it hurt not at all, 
but my teacher, sitting and watching me with his eyes 
sticking out and occasionally groaning and making ex- 
clamations, said, ‘‘I hope that. the Tibetans will never 
have to fight foreigners, because they do not feel pain at 
all.’’ It was impossible to make him understand that 
such an operation did not hurt. 

At the end of two years word came from Cincinnati 
that we were to have another family. Mr. and Mrs. 
Ogden, of Kentucky, had been appointed to come out 
and help. We began getting ready for me to go to the 
coast to bring them up. 

It was at this time that Mr. Moyes came down with 
typhus fever. After some days it appeared that the case 
was hopeless. One night about midnight I told Dr. 


LEARNING TO TALK 35 


Rijnhart that I could do nothing further, and that he was 
dying. She immediately collapsed and I was helpless. 
I determined that I would keep life in him just as long 
as possible. I had used all the heart stimulants that I 
had dared to use, but to no avail. I then took a large 
syringe and filled it with whiskey and inserted it under 
the muscle of the breast. In two minutes the heart-beats 
began to get stronger and the sweat to dry on his face. 
This held for nearly an hour and down it went again. I 
repeated the operation. I did this at intervals all 
through the night till at the end of twenty-four hours, 
through the night and next day, each injection was hold- 
ing him for more than four hours, and he had become 
able to swallow. I then ceased the injection and began 
feeding him through the mouth, a thing which had here- 
tofore been impossible. 

He recovered slowly and when we were ready to travel 
he and Dr. Rijnhart were also ready to travel to the 
British Consul at Chentu, where they were married. 


V 
ACROSS CHINA TO MEET OGDEN 


RS. SHELTON and myself and Doris now 
M about a year old, started toward the coast. 
Mrs. Shelton and the baby were to stay in 
West China while I should go on to Shanghai. It was a 
very easy matter to go down the river as compared to 
the task of going up-river. In one day you drift down 
a distance which it would require many days to go up. 
In this way, within a month of the time we had left 
Tachienlu I was in Nanking. 

I had expected that Mr. and Mrs. Ogden would meet 
me there, but on arriving and going up to Mr. Meigs’ 
house, in the heart of the city, I was told that they had 
not come up to Nanking but were waiting for me at 
Shanghai. I went on at once and the following day 
met them there. . 

They had been considerably worried because I had not 
come sooner. I had not, however, been able to determine 
exactly when I should be there, and owing to the illness 
of Mr. Moyes, it had been impossible to leave Tachienlu 
any sooner in any circumstances. 

It did not take us very long to get ready for the up- 
river journey at this time. We did, however, spend a 
few days at Nanking, where I met Professor and Mrs. 
C. T. Paul, who had come out to work in the University. 

They were old friends of Dr. Rijnhart and took this 
opportunity to send things to her which they had 
brought from home. 

36 


ACROSS CHINA TO MEET OGDEN 37 


We soon started on the long journey up the Yangtze 
and it was here that again the appeal of the need of the 
thousands of coolies all along the river eame to me with 
great force and I wished that I might be able to do sev- 
eral things at one time, one of which would be going up 
and down the Yangtze, following the river from Kiating 
to Ichang with a sort of travelling hospital. 

This, so far as I know, has never been done, but the 
need of it and the appeal of it have been with me through 
all these years, though, of course, now there are several 
hospitals along the river at different places. 

Arriving at Kiating, where Mrs. Shelton had been 
waiting, we passed quickly on to Yachow to make ar- 
rangements for the transportation of our goods. We 
were to go by land from Yachow to Tachienlu, while our 
goods were left to come more slowly by raft. 

At last everything was ready and we were prepared to 
go on. 

We had, while in Shanghai, purchased an organ. I 
felt that it would be of great service. Dr. Rijnhart had 
a little folding organ, but it was not adequate. When 
it came to transporting a full-sized organ over these 
mountains it was a different proposition. We finally 
managed it, however, by having it tied between poles and 
carried by four men much in the same manner that they 
carry a sedan chair. 

It was shortly after arriving in Tachienlu that Mrs. 
Shelton came down with typhus fever. As she lay un- 
conscious for more than three weeks it was a great ques- 
tion for many days as to whether or not she would re- 
eover. Mr. and Mrs. Ogden very kindly took Doris, and 
it was only occasionally that I would get to see her. 
Toward the last it appeared as if Mrs. Shelton must 
surely go. It appeared impossible that she should re- 


38 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


cover, but at last, after two days and nights, during 
which time, at intervals of fifteen minutes, she had been 
given a teaspoonful of water to prevent her choking as 
she lay unconscious, she began to show improvement. 

After she began to recover she grew better very rapidly 
and was soon up and around again. She scarcely knew 
Doris and Doris hardly knew her, as it had been neces- 
sary to shave her head. 

During the summer we had a visitor, Mr. Mason 
Mitchell, the United States Consul at Chungking. A 
visitor in these out-of-the-way places in the world means 
a great deal, and we were glad to have him in our home. 
He had come up to Tachienlu from Chungking to hunt 
the Budoreas, a large, ox-like animal found only in the 
Himalaya region. It was while out with him on a hunt- 
ing expedition that I received one night a letter from 
Mrs. Shelton saying that Mr. Ogden, who had been 
somewhat feverish of late, was not nearly so well; in 
fact, he had typhoid fever and I had better return at 
once. 

With night coming on I saddled my mule and made 
my way down the mountain and then on until two 
o’clock in the morning, when I reached Tachienlu. Mr. 
Ogden was very ill for some weeks, but eventually re- 
covered. It appeared as if we were having more than 
our share of sickness. 

Mr. and Mrs. Moyes had now returned to Tachienlu 
and it was during this time, owing to the difficulty of se- 
curing buildings for the work, that we deemed it advi- 
sable to erect a building, regarding which we had already 
written the Board the year before. In reply to our let- 
ters regarding this, however, they had asked whether or 
not it would be possible to move on nearer to the actual 
border of Tibet, although Tachienlu is, in reality, the 


ACROSS CHINA TO MEET OGDEN 39 


border line between the peoples. The geographical bor- 
der is some five hundred miles to the west. 

At this time it did not seem advisable, neither was 
it possible to do this. In the early fall, however, it 
was determined that Mr. Ogden and myself should go to 
Batang for a trip and see what would be the possibilities 
and the conditions. 

During the years in Tachienlu the little school had 
grown. Perhaps a dozen people had been baptized, 
among them one young man who, being desirous of a 
better education than could be obtained in Tachienlu, 
had gone to Nanking and entered the school there. 

I had baptized several of the schoolboys; some of these 
were Chinese and others had Chinese fathers and Ti. 
betan mothers. 

The medical work had grown and we were called upon 
by a great many people and some from long distances, 
The people in Tachienlu had come to consider it a safe 
thing to commit suicide by eating opium, owing to the 
efficacy of the treatment rendered them. 

It was, however, very amusing at the first, to be called 
out to treat some man or woman who, in a fit of passion, 
had swallowed opium in order to end their lives. I 
would be hurriedly called to see them. People would be 
frantic, trying to produce vomiting by running a finger 
down the throat or any other means possible. Then I 
would take an hypodermic needle and stick it into the 
arm, giving them a dose of apo-morphine and tell the 
distracted relatives to get a wash basin, The amusing 
part was to note the looks of astonishment that the vio- 
lent emesis which had been so easily induced but which 
they had been unable to bring about, brought to their 
faces. 

I purposely made the patient so violently ill that he 


40 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


considered a long time before again attempting such 
procedure. 

The work there in Tachienlu had also come to include 
one married couple who were continually fighting and 
she, being the weaker and, as it seemed, rather loose 
jointed, always got the worst of it. In any ease, after 
every fight her right shoulder was found to be out of 
joint. The man came to me in great distress the first 
time and I went and put it back in place. Only a few 
days later he came back again and, on inquiry, I found. 
that the cause was the same as before,—they had been 
fighting. 

He was a small shopkeeper and after attending his 

wife this time I told him that I had other things to do 
than going around fixing his wife’s bones after every 
fight and that if he ever did it again it would be neces- 
sary for him to pay a fee of two thousand cash (about 
one dollar and a half) for the services rendered. This 
was successful in restraining him somewhat for a time 
but again one night, about midnight, I was called and it 
was the same man with the same story. I insisted upon 
payment of the fee. He rather insisted that they had 
not been fighting but had just been playing with each 
other a little and the joint had come out. I told him 
that it made no difference whether it was fight or play, 
that from now on it would cost him two thousand cash 
each time it occurred. He finally paid it, but it had 
such an effect upon him that I think in two years I had 
only one other opportunity of repairing the effects of his 
play. 
Some of the patients were exceedingly grateful and 
would pay what they could, but there were a few who, al- 
though able to pay, would try to scheme in such a way 
as to get their treatment free. 


ACROSS CHINA TO MEET OGDEN 41 


Every man, woman, and child who ever came to the 
dispensary received the best treatment it was possible 
for us to give them. ‘Those who were able to pay were 
asked to pay the cost of the medicine, and those who were 
not, who were the great majority, were asked to pay 
about five cents, which was the cost of the dose of med- 
icine for the stomach ache, or pay for amputating a leg. 


VI 
PROSPECTING 


R. OGDEN and I made our arrangements for 
M the trip to Batang and one morning early in 
September we started. I had never been a 

great way on this road, having only been to Dong 
Gnolok, three days from Tachienlu. 

After crossing the first high pass, Jedo, from which 
pass we could see the great mountains which surround 
Tachienlu, continually covered with snow, and one of 
the reasons for its being so very cold, we came into the 
Plain of Anyachong, where one travels for more than a 
day with no rise or fall in the road of more than a few 
feet. 

It was rather unusual to find a place so lovely. It 
was especially lovely in the early autumn days when all 
the stock of yak, sheep and horses were in prime condi- 
tion. 

Having been there before, our medicine was much in 
demand along the road. Five days from Tachienlu we 
arrived at Nachuka, the Chinese Hokeo, where we must 
cross the river. 

There was kept there by the Chinese, at this time, a 
large wooden boat in which our goods and horses, as 
well as ourselves, could be taken across. 

After crossing the river at half-way to Litang, we 
came to Shignolok, the seat of one of the Tibetan head- 
men. He was very kind indeed, inviting us in and 

42 


PROSPECTING 43 


insisting on our drinking far more butter tea than was 
good for us. 

Butter tea is made by boiling in a large tea cauldron 
the very coarse leaves and twigs which are brought 
up from China and sold to the Tibetans in bricks. 
Then the tea is strained into a churn into which is 
thrown a large handful of salt and a large piece of stale 
butter. This is churned for some time until it is 
thoroughly emulsified. 

The Tibetans and Chinese who use this tea and never 
bathe, after a time come to have the odour of stale butter, 
and the Chinese say that one of the trials of going back 
to China after staying in this country is to have their 
friends continually turning up their noses and asking 
them to get out. 

The Westerner also learns to drink butter tea but fails 
to acquire the odour owing to his insistence on occa- 
sionally having a bath. 

At the end of ten days we reached Litang where is 
located one of the great monasteries of Eastern Tibet, 
where three thousand three hundred priests are sta- 
tioned. There is also located there one of the great 
printing places where there are carved blocks for the 
printing of the Gangur, the one hundred and eight vol- 
umes of Buddhist Seripture. Each page is carved on a 
block almost two feet long and six inches wide, and these 
blocks are stored in regular order in a great building, 
there being many many thousands of them. 

It was at this place that I saw the finest copy of 
the Gangur it had ever been my privilege to see. It was 
all written on heavy paper, which had been smoothed 
and blackened by rubbing with India ink until it had 
acquired a gloss. The whole one hundred and eight 
volumes had been thus prepared by hand and written in 


44 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


lines of alternate silver and gold ink. This ink is made 
by grinding gold and silver on a stone, and then after- 
ward mixing the resultant with glue water. The title 
pages were all beautifully decorated. It had required 
the services of many priests for many years to prepare 
these one hundred and eight volumes, each weighing 
from thirty to forty pounds and bound with carved 
boards. 

This work was destroyed some time later by the 
Chinese soldiers during fighting between the Chinese 
and the Tibetans. They would open the volumes, 
scatter the leaves and make a bonfire out of some, and 
the whole was utterly destroyed. It was so mutilated 
that it was of no further value. 

There are some fourteen passes between Tachienlu and 
Batang, the lowest of which is about fourteen thousand 
feet above sea level, and the highest between sixteen and 
seventeen thousand. 

In crossing these passes the men who have heretofore 
not been in high altitudes breathe with difficulty, espe- 
cially should they try to walk. Many Chinese soldiers, 
who do not understand this mountain sickness nor the 
reason for it, call these passes Yosan, or Medicine 
Mountain, saying that there is strong medicine in the air 
which causes the difficulty in breathing. 

The man who was accompanying Mr. Ogden, although 
riding, was feeling the effect of the altitude considerably 
one day and I, in a spirit of mischief, said to him, 
‘*Fusi, I believe what you need is a little exercise.’’ 
‘*Well,’’ he replied, ‘‘I wouldn’t be surprised.’’ We 
were not far from the top of one of the passes. It was 
rather a gradual slope on up to the top, and I proposed 
to him that he and I run a rapid race from there to the 
top, a distance of perhaps two hundred yards. He said, 


(STIAM LIVS) 1Nf NAA UVAN SSVd JO dOL WOU DNOMAW SSONOV DNIMOOT 





~ 





PROSPECTING 45 


‘* All right,’’? so dismounting from our horses we pre- 
pared for the race. Ogden gave the command and away 
we went. I, however, knew the impossibility of running 
more than a very few steps at that altitude and quickly 
stopped. Fusi went on for perhaps fifty yards, when 
he fell down on the grass groaning and gasping for 
breath like a fish out of water and declaring that it was 
no use, he knew he was going to die. It was perhaps a 
cruel thing for me to do, but I had been trying to tell 
him the reason for his condition which he in no wise be- 
lieved, but insisted that it was because of medicine in 
the air. 

A day or two later we were riding along and were 
going through a country which was noted as being the 
seat of operations of a robber band. Fusi had been 
greatly disturbed because we were having to pass through 
this country and was very much alarmed. We were rid- 
ing along quietly, a little in the rear, and I heard him 
talking to himself, or so it seemed, and I noticed that his 
eyes were closed. JI wondered if he could be ill and 
slowed the pace of my mule until his horse came almost 
abreast and I could hear what he was saying. He was 
offering up the most fervent prayers that we be saved 
from meeting these robbers. 

Arriving at Sanba, we were shown what, up to that 
time, was the farthest inland missionary grave. In 1898 
Mr. Moyes and Mr. Soutar had gone on a journey to 
Batang, and while in Batang Mr. Soutar had been taken 
ill. They had started at once for Tachienlu but it was 
useless. They had been able to proceed only three 
days’ journey to this lonely settlement of nomads at the 
foot of the highest mountain in all Eastern Tibet, covered 
with great fields of snow, and there he had succumbed. 
The grave had later been marked by a stone, and sleeping 


46 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


here, at the foot of the eternal snows, lies one of God’s 
pioneers. 

Three days later we reached Batang after having 
crossed the Dasso pass, the highest on the road, being 
nearly seventeen thousand feet. We had gone down, 
down, and down from the top of this pass, following a 
narrow road, sometimes built up and sometimes blasted 
out along the edge of the rolling torrent, which runs 
down to Batang. 

It is very cold coming over the passes and a descent of 
from sixteen thousand feet to a little less than nine 
thousand feet, causes it to appear very warm. 
While Batang had an elevation of about nine thousand 
feet and would be considered rather high, still in this 
land of such tremendous altitudes it is considered to be 
very low and many of the people from the highlands, in 
transporting goods to Batang, will only bring them to 
within about ten or fifteen miles of Batang where the 
elevation is still some twelve thousand feet, as they find 
it is very dangerous to bring their yak down into such 
low country where it is so very warm. 

We were very kindly received both by the son of the 
Tibetan Prince, who was still there, and also by the 
Chinese official. Knowing what we were able to do in a 
medical and surgical way, we were kept busy during the 
two or three days of our stay, attending to old wounds 
and all manner of sickness. 

It was there that we came upon the worst form of 
dysentery that it has ever been my lot to see. It does 
not kill quickly, the person simply gets more and more 
emaciated, and some that we saw were simply skin and 
bones, lying in the awful stench of the continual excreta 
from which no one considered it important that they 
should be moved, and from which they themselves were 


PROSPECTING 47 


unable to crawl. The awful need and the gross igno- 
rance appealed to us very strongly. 

We inquired as to the conditions around Batang, the 
number of villages up and down the valley, their prob- 
able populations, and after having made some short 
journeys into the country, and knowing that this, in the 
Chinese plans, would eventually become the seat of gov- 
ernment for the new Province, it appeared to us that it 
should at least be made one of the main stations of the 
Mission. 

Lying about a quarter of a mile from the main part of 
the town were the ruins of what had formerly been the 
pride of all that section; a great monastery, housing 
some two or three thousand priests, and which had been 
destroyed during the fighting between the Chinese and 
Tibetans, which followed the murder of the Chinese 
minister a year or two before. The Chinese had been 
absolutely ruthless in their punishments. The innocent 
and guilty suffered alike, and the executions would some- 
times run into forty and fifty in a single day. 

We went to call upon the son of the Prince. His 
father had been executed in the general slaughter. He 
was very kind and lived in a quite considerable palace 
but was closely guarded and watched by the Chinese. 
He was a very poor specimen, being a confirmed opium 
smoker, a habit which the Chinese had introduced, and 
he was rapidly using up the property that was his. 

He was afterward transported, himself, his wife, son, 
and daughter, to Chentu, the capital of Szechuen, where 
one by one they all, except the son, succumbed. They 
were unable to stand the low altitude and great heat of 
the plains. 

The Tibetans generally are very much afraid of the 
lowlands, and it was with great difficulty that any of 


48 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


them could be persuaded to accompany us down into the 
plains of China at furlough time. 

After a few days spent at Batang, we started on our 
return journey, travelling very quickly because we did 
not wish to leave the women alone at Tachienlu for too 
great length of time. We got on well until we reached 
Litang, which was thirteen thousand two hundred feet 
above sea level, and which is so high that neither barley 
nor wheat will mature, and the country round about is 
entirely given over to grazing and to the washing of 
gold which is found in considerable quantities along the 
banks of the shallow streams. 

After our arrival there was a great snowfall and we 
were snowed in for two days. The houses were very 
low, badly excavated and badly built with sod above the 
surface level. The fires are of yak dung and some wood, 
which is brought from a considerable distance. The 
chimney is a thing about which they do not trouble. 
As a consequence the smoke is exceedingly irritating, and 
sore eyes are very prevalent among the Tibetans. 

It was impossible for Mr. Ogden and me to endure 
this smoke; finally we succeeded in securing a small 
quantity of charcoal with which to keep ourselves warm. 
We had provided ourselves before leaving Tachienlu 
with sheepskin garments, so we were not greatly incon- 
venienced. 

On reaching Tachienlu and finding all well after some 
six weeks’ absence, we sent our recommendations to 
America, which were that the main station of the Mis- 
sion be located at Batang, but that one family be lo- 
eated at Tachienlu for the purpose of forwarding sup- 
plies, mail and money, as we would be constantly de- 
pendent upon the outside for these things. We also 
pointed out to those at home the difficulties of the road 


PROSPECTING | 49 


and transportation. In reply they stated that after 
having considered our report, they would like to ask 
that, in view of the difficulties of the road, the great 
remoteness of the place, and above all, the difficulties of 
finding men and women who were willing to go to this 
remote place, we very seriously consider the advisability 
of giving up the work and going down into China where 
reinforcements were greatly needed. 

This was discouraging in the extreme. We had been 
hoping that things were going to move forward and 
here we were being asked the advisability of abandoning 
the field altogether. After considering the matter very 
seriously it was decided that we could not give up the 
field, that it should not be done, and that the difficulties 
should only be a spur to greater effort because the task 
must be accomplished; and we so wrote the Board. 

It was with great joy, therefore, that some months 
later we received a letter from the president of the 
Society in which he stated that our answer was just what 
he was praying that it might be. 


VII 
MOVE TO BATANG 


O with the consent of the Executive Committee in 
S America, we were now to move on to Batang. In 

preparation for this it was necessary that we 
obtain certain things, including tents, glass, a few 
hinges, nails, etc., from America. So these were ordered 
and we made preparation to go to Chentu, the capital of 
Szechuen, to attend the Conference of all missionaries in 
West China and, at the same time, bring up, when they 
should arrive, these things from America. 

Accordingly, in January, 1908, we went to Chentu 
and after the Conference, which was of very great help 
to us all after having been isolated for some years, we 
took boat and floated down the Chentu River to Suifu, 
where we left Mrs. Shelton and Mrs. Ogden with the 
children, while Mr. Ogden and I went on to Chungking 
to get the supplies which should be arriving from 
America. 

They were greatly delayed, however, and after a wait 
of some ten days it was decided that I should go on 
back, take the women and return to Tachienlu, as the 
spring was coming on and the heat would be very op- 
pressive in the lowlands. 

So I went on back to Suifu, making as long stages as 
possible. I was riding along one afternoon and was 
feeling exceedingly sorry for my mule. After I had 
covered almost two stages in that one day, he appeared 
so tired that it seemed almost impossible for him to go 

50 


MOVE TO BATANG 51 


further. The road was very narrow and raised above 
the surrounding paddy fields on each side of the road. 
I was just saying to myself that the next day, although I 
was in a hurry, I would not try to cover more than one 
stage as it was too hard on my mule. The paddy fields 
were in terraces, some two or three feet above each other, 
and we were going down grade. In one of the fields 
just ahead were some ducks which I had not seen and 
suddenly, one of the ducks, in attempting to come from 
one of the lower fields into an upper, flapped his wings 
very vigorously and said, ‘‘Quack, quack, quack,’’ and 
my mule, being thus startled, gave just one jump side- 
ways and landed in a paddy field some six feet below, 
while I went over his head somewhat in the fashion of a 
bullfrog and landed in the paddy field next below him. 

I went under the water and mud on all fours and 
when I came up and got the water out of my eyes, there 
was my mule in the paddy field above, with his ears 
stuck forward, looking to see what I was doing. After 
excavating myself, as well as the mule, from the paddy 
fields, and getting back on to the road, I went to a small 
stream near by, and I gave my clothes a bath with me 
inside them; and, as dark was coming, I mounted and 
rode away, water and all. I wasn’t troubled any more, 
however, with any feelings of compassion for that mule 
and we made the remaining five miles in record time. 

After a short stop in Suifu, Mrs. Shelton, Mrs. Ogden 
and myself took the road for Tachienlu where we arrived 
in good time. Now began the preparations for the move 
while waiting for Mr. Ogden to come up with the goods 
from below. He finally arrived and after all things had 
been prepared, there being some things still to attend to, 
it was decided that Mrs. Shelton and I should go on 
ahead. We had in the meantime dispatched Johnny, our 


52 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


faithful cook whom we had brought on the first trip 
from Nanking, to Batang to rent and prepare as best 
he could some place of residence for us, 

He had great difficulty in securing any place as it was 
reported in Batang that it was the custom of foreigners 
when they had once rented a place and occupied it, to 
keep it for themselves; so that it was only with great 
difficulty and through the help of Mr. Bu, one of the 
Chinese missionaries sent by the Chentu Church to do 
work among the Tibetans, that a house was found. 

All our goods had to be packed in boxes weighing not 
more than seventy-five pounds. This was sometimes ex- 
ceedingly difficult, especially when it came to cook- 
stoves. With the organ, of course, it was impossible. 
Cook-stoves could be taken apart and packed in pieces, 
but the organ could not; so we had to have it carried. 

Finally, in June, Mrs. Shelton and I were off. Doris 
and Dorothy, our two babies, riding in one chair, Mrs. 
Shelton in another, and I on my mule. It was lovely 
travelling during the summer except that sometimes 
violent hail and snow storms would come up for a short 
while but would quickly pass, and we could drive on 
again. The passes were all covered with flowers and in 
going through the forests in the somewhat lower altitude 
the scenery was lovely indeed. 

At Hokeo, where we had to cross the river, we saw 
great mountains of tea on their way to the interior. 
This tea is carried all over Tibet. It is very much sought 
after and passes in the interior as money in trade and 
barter. There would be caravans, sometimes as many as 
two hundred yak, all loaded with tea from China, The 
Tibetans come out in the spring from the interior to 
Tachienlu, the great tea market, bringing their wool, 
hides, deer horns, musk, gold, rugs, woolen cloth, ete. 


MOVE TO BATANG 53 


These articles they trade for tea, silk, sugar, tobacco, 
ete. This trade, which formerly amounted to hundreds 
of thousands of dollars, has been greatly curtailed dur- 
ing the last few years owing to the continuous fighting 
, b@tween the Chinese and Tibetans. 

In Litang we stopped for a day that we might get 
some washing done and do some needed cooking for the 
remainder of the journey, which would be completed in 
about seventeen stages, and would require seven days. 
We had not, up to the present, experienced any great 
difficulty with the altitude and got along fairly well even 
in Litang, thirteen thousand feet above sea level, but the 
following day as it was impossible to cross the high pass 
that separated us from the next valley it was necessary 
for us to stop at Totang, a small military outpost on the 
top of the Whangtogang, which has been translated by 
some one as meaning, ‘‘The abomination of desolation.’’ 
Covered with great boulders, the road is very difficult 
and there, in a small stone hut, occupied by a lone China- 
man and his Tibetan wife, neither of which could under- 
stand the other, we spent the night. 

Here during the night I was suddenly awakened by 
Mrs. Shelton sitting up in bed and saying that she was 
having an awful dream. She turned over and tried to 
go to sleep again but in a few minutes it was the same 
thing. It was then that we found out what the trouble 
was. We were simply like fish out of water. There 
was not enough oxygen in the air to sustain one at a 
retarded rate of respiration, so we sat up and managed 
to get through the night; but at three o’clock got break- 
fast and were ready to move on. 

It was a great relief to get out the next night from 
this extremely high altitude and where we could sleep 
again, 


bt PIONEERING IN TIBET 


After another week in these high altitudes, crossing 
one pass after another and after a day of going around 
the pass of Genyi, the great snow mountain at whose 
foot James Soutar lies sleeping, and crossing the last 
high pass we came down into livable conditions again 
and on one bright, sunshiny day about two o’clock in 
the afternoon, we arrived in Batang. 

We found Johnny in the midst of having an old room 
which he had been able to rent, ceiled and floored for 
our occupancy. We moved in and the work went on. 
We lived in this place for some months until we were 
able to rent and repair a more suitable quarter. 

We were again strangers in a strange land but found 
some friends whom we had been able to help on a 
former trip. We found there one man who came in to 
me one day and was exceedingly friendly. I could not 
understand why he should be so. He smiled and talked 
in a great way and I was wondering what he wanted 
when he turned to me and said, ‘‘You don’t know me, 
do you?’’ I said, ‘‘No, I don’t know you.’’ He im- 
mediately began unbuttoning his clothes and pulling up 
his shirt, exposing a scar on his abdomen, said, ‘‘Now 
do you know me?’’ He was a former patient from 
Tachienlu on whom I had operated for appendicitis. 
These patients I met from time to time through all the 
country and though I did not remember them, they did 
remember me. 


vill 
FIRST OPERATION IN BATANG 


a man had come in to see me, with a great row of 

enlarged glands around his neck and had asked 
me to remove them. He had come from Lichang in the 
Province of Yunnan, some twenty-five days to the south- 
west, for the express purpose of having me operate on 
him. Arriving as he did, just as we were departing for 
Batang, it was impossible to operate because many of my 
instruments and supplies had gone on. I told him that it 
would be impossible to attend to him now but that if he 
could come on five hundred miles to Batang, I would be 
glad to take care of him. He said he would but I hardly 
expected it. However, we had been in Batang only two 
days when he arrived and insisted that he was ready for 
the operation. We had not had time to unpack or in 
any way to prepare for taking care of the sick, but I had 
promised him that I would take care of him as soon as 
he came to Batang. So there was nothing else to do 
except to unpack the boxes containing the instruments 
and do the best we could. 

It is always a mistake among these superstitious, in- 
credulous people to do things behind closed doors, be- 
cause all sorts of stories get out. In Tachienlu I was 
greatly puzzled for a long time as to why, when I would 
go on the street, small children would see me and take 
to their heels and never stop till they were safely inside 
their own doors. Upon inquiry, we found that they 

55 


J UST the day before we left Tachienlu for Batang, 


56 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


were told, and it was believed by many people, that we 
would catch children and take out their livers and eyes 
and use them for medicine. 

There was great curiosity shown by many of the 
people in Batang when it was found out that I was 
going to operate on this man. I secured an old door, 
placed it on two benches out in the open part of the 
house, where any one who wished could see. After 
sterilizing everything as well as could be done, Johnny, 
my assistant, gave the anesthetic and put the man to 
sleep, and the operation was performed. Every one 
thought the man must be dead as he lay so still and 
uttered no moan while the operation was being done, and 
it was with great surprise that they saw him at last 
wake up. He recovered and went back to his home in 
Lichang some twenty-five days to the south, having had 
to travel, in all, nearly seventy days in order to be cured. 

One of our great trials in Batang during the first year 
was the lack of proper food. There were very few 
vegetables to be had, we had no garden of our own, and 
we could obtain practically nothing except meat and 
flour. We found that there were a few potatoes of a 
small, round variety, no larger than a marble. We were 
able to obtain some of these and they were appreciated, 

Dorothy became very ill and we despaired of saving her 
and for some months it was a question every day as to 
whether she would survive. But with the advent of 
cold weather she began to improve and eventually re- 
covered. Later in the fall we were gladdened by the 
news that Mr. and Mrs. Ogden had decided to come on in 
before cold weather finally shut down and closed the 
passes; so early in October they arrived. 

Mr. Bu, the Chinese missionary of the Methodist 
Church, who had come in some months previously, very 


FIRST OPERATION IN BATANG 57 


kindly assisted us in every way in his power, in helping 
us to rent a garden, for we saw that it would be neces- 
sary for us to raise our own vegetables. We also bought 
some cows in order that we might have our own milk and 
butter, kept and prepared in a sanitary way. This was 
absolutely necessary for the health of the children. 

We had brought from Tachienlu and had sent to us 
from America, all kinds of garden seeds and hoped to 
be able to raise most of what we would want in that line. 

We succeeded in renting a small piece of ground which 
was well irrigated, and from that time to the present we 
have never been without our own vegetables. We 
brought from Tachienlu seed potatoes and potatoes have 
become, in Batang and the surrounding country, one of 
the chief products. Many hundreds of bushels are raised 
each year. This is a great blessing, as potatoes yield 
far more abundantly than any other crop. 

There have been brought in and introduced by Mr. 
Ogden, Mr. Baker, Dr. Hardy, Mr. McLeod, and our- 
selves, many varieties of vegetables, some of which are 
proving very valuable indeed. My father sent me 
alfalfa seed from Oklahoma. It produced wonderfully 
and is much sought after in the early spring by the 
people as a vegetable, as it is the first green thing that 
appears and is very palatable. 

Broom corn, sorghum, cabbage, onions, beets, peas, 
beans, parsnips, carrots, pumpkins, squash, almost any- 
thing, in fact, that is produced in America, grows 
abundantly here. 

The difficulty is in getting the people to use them. 
They have become so accustomed, through many genera- 
tions, to live almost exclusively on parched barley and 
butter tea, that they do not feel the need nor relish a 
variety of diet. 


58 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Mr. Ogden and Mr. Baker, when they came, succeeded 
in keeping alive through all the months of travel, nine 
strawberry plants from which we have succeeded in 
populating the whole valley, so that we have now about 
as fine strawberries as can be grown any place. There 
are a few peaches and wild raspberry plants, as well as 
apricots, grown in the valley. We have at last sueceeded 
also, through the efforts of Mr. Baker, in getting a few 
apple trees started. Pears are a very poor variety, but 
are grown to some extent. 

There is one product in this valley which cannot be 
excelled any place. This is the English walnut, which is 
produced in great abundance. Mr. McLeod is a Scotch- 
man and, as soon as he arrived, threw his efforts into 
cultivating oats, and they are now flourishing. Canta- 
loupes do well. One great sorrow in my life has 
been my utter inability, after seventeen years of trial, to 
raise watermelons. 

It was somewhat difficult at first to secure a teacher. 
So we had struggled on and on as best we could with- 
out a teacher, since no one was willing to help us. 
I was almost desperate and one day one of my Tibetan 
friends came to visit me and I said to him, ‘‘Gezong 
Ongdu, I am in an awful fix. Why can’t you 
help me out with this Tibetan a little?’’ He 
said, ‘‘Yes, I’ll be glad to help you out a little.’’ 
‘¢ Well,’’ I said, ‘‘ how much shall I pay you a month ? ”’ 
** Oh,’’ he said, ‘‘ I’m not going to do it for money at 
all. If I can do it for you as your friend I’ll be glad to 
doit. Otherwise I’ll not do it at all.’? To which terms I 
was forced to accede for atime. At the end of the month 
I proposed to give him what he considered fair wage and 
tried todo so. He refused and I insisted. I finally took 
and stuffed it into his gown. He said, ‘‘ All right, if you 


FIRST OPERATION IN BATANG 59 


don’t want to be friends any more I’ll take it ; but if you 
want us to be friends and want me to come back, you will 
have to take your money back.’’ Thus I was forced to 
accede to his terms because I could not get along without 
him. I, however, got even with him later. 


IX 
GETTING READY TO BUILD 


HE lamasery at Batang was in ruins. Not only 

was it in ruins, but many of the houses 

throughout the surrounding country were 

burned up, simply the bare walls of mud left standing. 

The people were poor, many of the families had no 

heads, the men having been executed following the kill- 

ing of the Chinese minister; desolation and poverty 
reigned everywhere. 

In these conditions work was very difficult because in 
a way we were looked upon as being friends of the Chi- 
nese. But we never made any change in our attitude 
so far as it was possible to maintain it, telling them that 
we were there to do good to every one, whether Chinese, 
Tibetan, or half-caste, insisting at all times, both to the 
Chinese and Tibetans, that all men were brothers. 

One day Ju Lama, one of the incarnations in Batang, 
and looked upon as being one of the heads of the Bud- 
dhist Priesthood, came to me and wanted to know if I 
would be willing to go some two days’ journey across the 
mountain into Yangtze valley where a house had col- 
lapsed, killing several and wounding many others. 

Taking one of my assistants, Mr. Bu, with me, in com- 
pany with Ju Lama, we set out. It was a place where no 
white man had ever gone before, and where Chinese were 
afraid to go. We were, however, perfectly safe, escorted 
as we were by a messenger who had brought the word 
and by Ju Lama. 

60 


GETTING READY TO BUILD 61 


We started very early, somewhat before daylight, in 
order that we might make the journey by hard travelling 
in one day, which we did. The road, after crossing the 
mountain, led up the Yangtze River. On the side of the 
mountain some two thousand feet above the river, it runs 
into a deep gorge. At almost sundown we arrived at the 
village. I stopped while inquiries were being made as 
to where the injured were. The house was pointed out 
but we were informed that I would not be allowed to 
enter that night. On inquiry as to why, we were told 
that we had been on the road all day and we were prob- 
ably possessed of a great many devils that we had ac- 
quired on the road, and that it would be a great injury 
to the patients for us to enter the house that night. 

Loath though we were to postpone anything that could 
be done, we were forced to comply and seek shelter in 
some other home, where we were allowed to stay in a 
small room on top of the third story of an adobe house. 
It is a great wonder that more people are not killed in 
these adobe houses than are, because the walls, made of 
adobe, are built sometimes to tremendous heights. 

We did not sleep much because it rained nearly all 
night and the water, pouring through the mud roof, 
could only be kept off by using an oil covering over the 
bed. After a night spent in discussing the different 
problems of the Tibetans with Ju Lama, morning came 
at last. Ju Lama has been a good friend to me through 
all the years. 

The next morning we went to see the injured folk, one 
of whom was a man with both legs broken by a beam fall- 
ing on them. The neighbours had set the bones as best 
they could, but had used only small sticks and wrapped 
them with woolen cords very tightly, so that there was 
no chance for the return circulation. As a consequence, 


62 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


the feet were swollen to great size and the man was in 
great agony. We did what we could for the man, but 
were not allowed to stay, and they refused to have the 
feet amputated. The bones had run through the flesh 
and he was being cared for in a room in the back part of 
which was the fireplace and bed. The bed was simply an 
old sheepskin laid on the ground. In the front part 
were yak and sheep. The filth was indescribable and the 
wounds infected so that there was not much chance with- 
out radical measures, which they refused. 

We reluctantly bade them good-bye and returned 
home. Three days later the man died. Even the band- 
ages with which we had wrapped his legs were taken 
off and returned to us in Batang. 

It was about this time that I performed my first mar- 
riage ceremony. The boy that took care of my mule was 
told by some of his friends that it was time he was get- 
ting married. He said that if they thought that he 
ought to get married it was all right with him, and, if 
they could find him a wife, it would suit him very well. 
They looked around and a few days later announced 
that they had found a Tibetan girl who was very strong 
and who could do lots of work and who would make him 
a good wife. He was satisfied, so the papers were drawn 
up and the agreement made. Time went on and prepa- 
rations for the marriage were carried forward. He 
came to me and said, ‘‘Dr. Shelton, although I am not 
yet a Christian, I expect to be some day, and I would 
like you to marry me instead of being married according 
to the Chinese custom.’’ I told him I would be glad to 
marry him. 

I had not as yet seen the bride-to-be, nor had he. 
When the time came he was decked out in all the finery 
of a Chinese mandarin, with a peacock feather sticking 


GETTING READY TO BUILD 63 


out from the back of his head, and dressed in silks and 
satins worth more than he could have earned in a year. 
These were borrowed from other folks, by his friends, 
for the occasion. 

He was escorted to our house by several of his friends 
and a few minutes later, there came the bride escorted 
by her friends. Now Niuniu, the boy, was quite small, 
being something over five feet, while the bride was 
nearly six feet tall. He looked up to see what she looked 
like, and she was very shy. He could not speak a word 
of Tibetan, nor could she speak a word of Chinese, so it 
was necessary for me to marry him in Chinese and her 
in Tibetan, and for some time to come, when they wished 
to have any conversation, it was necessary to call in an 
interpreter. 

These friends in Batang, seeing the different articles 
in our home, kept asking us if we would not get the same 
for them. This we did when we could, but there came a 
time when we had to stop it, as it became too much of a 
burden, this trying to purchase things in America, espe- 
cially as there were great difficulties in transportation 
and many times the articles were lost. 

While it was very difficult many times in making 
friends with the grown folks, it was not nearly so much 
so with the children, especially as our own children 
opened the way with them. This is our greatest hope, 
the work with the children and young folks, although 
sometimes the older ones do become Christians. But 
even becoming Christians, they carry with them over 
into Christianity many of the old customs and supersti- 
tions that have been born and bred in them. 

The spring following our arrival in Batang witnessed 
the advent of the first white baby, little Ruth Ogden, 
who was a source of wonder to all the natives. 


x 
MEDICAL WORK 


T now became necessary to plan for building. We 
| had as yet secured no land on which we could build. 
The prospects appeared good and it was thought 
wise to begin preparing, because building in this far out- 
post of civilization is a different proposition from what 
it is in America where, if you want so much lumber, so 
much lime, so many brick, all you have to do is to send 
word down to the lumber yard or brick kiln. In this 
place there are forests on the mountains and clay on the 
banks. If you want lumber, you must make it. If you 
want brick, they must also be made. If you want lime, 
stone must be gathered and burned. 

In preparation for this I had made arrangements be- 
fore leaving Tachienlu to have sawyers sent in when I 
should require them. I had also bought saws in Chung: 
king. | 

I accordingly sent to Tachienlu and had fifteen men 
come in, bringing with them their Chinese axes and also 
their carpenter tools. 

The work began in early fall and consisted first in 
scouting expeditions back into the mountains to find 
suitable lumber. It was at last located some fifteen or 
eighteen miles from Batang, up one of the small streams 
whose waters come down the valley. 

Then it became necessary to get permission from the 
magistrate to cut the lumber. After some negotiations 

64 


MEDICAL WORK 65 


we secured his permission and at last tsamba (parched 
barley meal), tea, salt and flour having been secured, 
camp was made and the work begun. It was to be an all 
winter’s job, and the snow would be very deep, so it be- 
came necessary to build snow huts which were thrown 
together from some of the first lumber cut. 

The work went on, I having made out the bill of what 
was required, and all through the winter these men 
worked up in the mountains, felling trees, cutting them 
up into the required lengths, then hewing with their axes 
until they were more or less square and then slowly and 
laboriously sawing each plank. 

I spent considerable time with them in the mountains. 
Every time I went up I took a big piece of meat so that 
they might have a good feed. 

The conditions under which people labour in this 
country are the conditions, only perhaps somewhat ex- 
aggerated, under which our forefathers worked in our 
own land. The nights were long and cold, but there was 
one blessing, wood was abundant, and at night we would 
have a great bonfire, around which we all sat, making 
the evening the most pleasing part of the day, and it was 
with great reluctance, often at a very late hour, when the 
men would get out in the morning. Often it would be 
nine or ten o’clock before any work would be done. 

Time, however, is one of the things which has no 
meaning for an Oriental. If a thing cannot be done to- 
morrow, it can be done the next day or next weck. 

After the timber had been. cut, the following spring it 
became necessary to transport the boards to Batang. 
This was done in several ways. The small boards were 
usually carried on donkeys or yak. The larger pieces 
were too unwieldy for this and were carried on men’s 
backs, and very large pieces, which were too heavy for 


66 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


one man to carry alone, were tied up and carried by 
several, 

After the wood had been brought into Batang and 
seasoned all winter, it was planed and stored for use. The 
preparation of flooring, grooving, and tonguing was all 
done by piece-work at so much per board. Had it not 
been so the cost would have been prohibitive. Being 
done by piece-work, if a man wanted to spend an hour 
filing his saw or whetting his plane, that was his business. 

The making of doors was given to the best carpenter 
in the bunch. He made some very good doors indeed. 

It also became necessary to burn brick and tile for the 
roof. This was perhaps a more serious job than the get- 
ting out of the lumber. It was finally decided that the 
brick should be burned as near the spot where they were 
to be used as possible. Two kilns were built which 
would hold approximately ten thousand brick each. 
Sheds for the moulding and drying had to be prepared, 
wood for the fire had to be brought down from the moun- 
tains. There was an endless amount of detail that had 
to be looked after, and I began to think of what I had 
heard a missionary say down in China as we came 
through. He had been delegated to do the building for 
his mission and he said that the mission had decided that, 
instead of having each man do his own building, it was 
just as well to let one man go to Hell and be done with 
it and give the rest a chance. 

During the summer and winter I burned some two 
hundred thousand bricks. As fall came on it was neces- 
sary to suspend operations, for the brick would freeze 
before drying. 

It also was necessary to prepare furniture for the dif- 
ferent families. Tables, chairs, beds, wash-stands, and 
all other things in the line of furniture must be made; 


MEDICAL WORK 67 


so it was no unusual thing to find a missionary studying 
over Montgomery Ward’s catalogue, looking over the pic- 
tures, trying to decide in what way the furniture should 
be made. 

During this time the medical work had been continu- 
ally increasing as also were the other branches of the 
work. Sword cuts and gunshot wounds, accidental 
broken bones and things of this nature were constantly 
oceurring. For these I was constantly called in. For 
the work of a more purely medical nature, such as fever, 
ete., I was not so much in demand, as they had methods 
of their own for treating things, among which are the 
calling in of some eight or ten priests and the reading of 
prayers, the ringing of bells, the blowing of horns, and 
the beating of drums, in order to drive out the devils. 

Another custom that they have in treating the sick is 
to never allow them to sleep. Day and night some one 
will sit beside the person who is ill, and he eventually 
becomes almost dead for lack of sleep, but he will be 
roused, stuck with a pin or in some other manner roused 
again to wakefulness. They think that if a person is 
allowed to go to sleep he may not wake up again, and it 
is with the greatest difficulty that they can be convineed, 
and sometimes not at all, that sleep is a very necessary 
thing for a person who is ill. 

Another way of curing disease is to have a big priest 
write a prayer on a slip of paper, which is rolled into a 
pill and swallowed by the patient. Another way is to 
take a knife that has been heated hot and jab it into the 
affected part. 

One day I was going down with Ju Lama to his home. 
His mother is a nomad and lived some two days to the 
southeast of Batang. As a usual thing, for my medical 
and surgical ability, I am treated with considerable re- 


68 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


spect while travelling along the road, but travelling with 
him I was a person of no consequence whatever. People 
would see him coming and would line up along the side 
of the road, bow their heads and clasp their hands before 
their faces, and wait for him to ride along and place his 
hand on one head after another in blessing. 

People also came during the noon hour while we were 
stopping for dinner, bringing bits of string on which 
they wished him to tie a note. He did this, and after he 
had tied the note he would breathe upon it. Upon in- 
quiry I found that this was to protect them from small- 
pox. 

On reaching his home a great many persons came 
bringing presents of one kind or another and asking for 
charms and blessing, or for relief from this or that con- 
dition, all of which he, without hesitation, promised. At 
last a man came bringing a much larger present than 
usual, consisting of some pounds of Tibetan butter, sev- 
eral pounds of tea, a measure of barley and a chicken. 
‘‘Well,’’ said Ju Lama, ‘‘what can I do for you?’’ The 
man very respectfully bowed, sticking out his tongue, as 
was the custom, and replied, ‘‘It is very serious and I 
need your help badly. About two months ago my father 
died, then a little later some of the horses died, then 
again a pig died, and now another one of the horses is 
sick, and at the present rate I will be ruined shortly 
unless you can do something to help me. Will you 
please cast lots to find out what the trouble is so that I, 
if possible, may remedy it?’ 

Watch how it works. 

Ju Lama very promptly removed from his gown his 
little box containing two dice which, after blowing 
upon them, he very solemnly cast back into the box, 
looking intently at the dots. This he did three times, 


MEDICAL WORK 69 


and then turning to his visitor and sticking his finger at 
him, he said very solemnly, ‘‘ You have not been any too 
good a man, and the fact of the matter is that the gods 
have been considerably displeased with you. Now I’ll 
tell you what to do. You hire ten Lamas for ten days 
to come and read prayers in your home, and you see to it 
that they are not only well paid but that they are well 
fed while they are there.’’ ‘‘Lasso, lasso (yes, yes),’’ 
exclaimed the man, and, thanking the Lama profusely, 
withdrew. I said to Ju Lama, ‘‘ What in the world did 
you want to go and tell the man all that stuff for? You 
know very well that it won’t do any good and that 
man is in serious trouble and really wants help.’’ He 
said, ‘‘Hush, hush, don’t talk so loud—some of the peo- 
ple will hear you.’’ ‘‘But,’’ I said, ‘‘I want to know.’’ 
“‘Well,’’ says he, ‘‘if I didn’t do this they wouldn’t have 
any confidence in us at all, and if they got so they didn’t 
have any confidence in us, we wouldn’t be able to make 
a living.’’ Ju Lama has no more confidence in these 
things than I have, and yet, by force of circumstances 
as well as inclination, he is almost compelled to go on. 
One day at Batang, not long after we had arrived, a 
man came down from the magistrate’s Yamen, asking 
me if I would go up, as the magistrate wanted to see me 
for a few minutes. I went up immediately, and after 
greetings, he said, ‘‘I have been building a road out here, 
and I have had a good many people in from the country 
working on it, and we had a very serious accident this 
morning. <A rock fell down from one of the cliffs and 
hit one of the men on the head, and I want to see if you 
can do anything for him.’’ I asked where the man was 
and he replied, ‘‘Over here in one of these houses.’’? He 
went over to the house with me and we found the man 
lying on the straw where the yak and horses were. Brain 


70 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


matter was slowly oozing from the wound in his head. 
After examining the man I found a place about the size 
of the hand that was greatly depressed and the bone was 
badly mashed. 

I told the magistrate that the man would probably die 
and that, just having arrived, it was a very serious thing, 
not only for him but for us, and should I operate on the 
man and should he die, we would be accused of causing 
his death. 

Some of his friends, however, standing around, said, 
‘“No, no, he’ll certainly die now. Please do what you 
ean for him.’’ So we arranged a place with one of the 
old doors as a table, as I had not yet been able to have 
tables and other necessary things made, and took him 
up-stairs into one of the rooms. The ceiling of the room 
was covered with soot and there was great danger of it 
falling down, so we hung up a sheet over where the table 
was to be and, after preparing as thoroughly as possible, 
he was given chloroform and the work was begun. 

I laid back the scalp from the wound, and, after getting 
a start, removed fourteen pieces of crushed bone, cleaned 
out the wound thoroughly and stitched back the scalp. 
The man was barely breathing. It appeared as if he 
would not live. But that man got well, when by all the 
laws of medicine he ought to have died. But ‘‘Man’s 
extremity is God’s opportunity.’’ It would have meant 
retarding greatly all work should this man’s life have 
gone out. 

About three weeks after he was well and had gone 
home I was walking along in a hurry one day, going 
home to dinner. I met an old man and woman who, 
when they saw me, got down on the side of the road and 
began bumping their heads on the ground. I went up 
and told them to get up, that we did not allow any one to 


MEDICAL WORK 71 


get down on their knees to us. I asked them what they 
wanted. The old man began fumbling inside his sheep- 
skin gown and brought forth first, an old rooster, then 
a dirty piece of Tibetan butter and six eggs. These he 
presented to me and then down they went on the ground 
again. I said, ‘‘See here, what do you folks want?’’ It 
is necessary to be very careful in this country when ac- 
cepting presents, because they very often have strings 
tied to them, and sometimes they wish things done that 
we cannot do. They often wish us to help in different 
ways, especially in their lawsuits, with which we can 
have nothing whatever to do. 

Getting up from the ground, he said, ‘‘ You know that 
man with the broken head? Well, we’re his father and 
mother, and we have come to thank you for saving our 
son’s life.’’ And down they went again. These old 
folks had come five days’ journey to thank me for saving 
their son’s life. My fee was one old rooster, one piece 
of dirty butter and six eggs, but, you know, it was one of 
the best fees I have ever reccived. Gratitude of people 
to whom we have been able to be of service is one of the 
greatest compensations. 

There is also considerable blindness in the country. A 
great deal of it is past remedy, but there are quite a few 
with cataracts who can be helped. It is very gratifying 
to see a man or a woman who has been walking in dark- 
ness for many months, perhaps years, step out and be 
able to follow the road without being led, or to pick up 
his own Tsamba Bo, or in other ways resume the ordi- 
nary occupations of life. 

The confidence which the people have in us, engen- 
dered by these things, is indeed heart-breaking. They 
get to believing that we have almost supernatural power 
and come to us with things which we ean in no way help. 


72 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Hearing what had been done, people come from long dis- 
tances confidently expecting help, and when told that 
they cannot be cured, refuse to believe it. They think 


that we are telling them this so that they will bring 
money. 


XI 
DR. LOFTIS 


le “HE tin of our furlough was drawing near. It 
was nece.sary that another doctor should come 
and take my place in the work while I should 
be home. The committee at home had been searching 
for a man who was capable; not only one who was ¢a- 
pable, but thoroughly consecrated and willing to come 
to this place. At last they found a man whose request 
was that he might be sent to the most difficult field 
in the world and where the need was the greatest. That 
man was Dr. Zenas Sanford Loftis, a member of P. Y. 
Pendleton’s church at Vine Street, Nashville, Tennessee. 
After his long journey across the Pacific and some 
months up through China for more than two thousand 
miles, he was at last nearing his destination. He had 
been accompanied by Mr. Edgar of the China Inland 
Mission on his long journey overland from Tachienlu. 
Dr. Loftis was a man who loved all the beauties of 
nature and was able to see God on every hand. When 
they reached Sanba, at the foot of the mighty Genye, 
whose snows towered thousands of feet above the road, it 
was there that he saw Soutar’s grave. A premonition 
seemed to seize him there and he was not able to sleep 
that night. Rising in the middle of the night, he placed 
this entry in his diary, ‘‘Sleep on, thou servant of the 
Living God, if it be Thy will that I, too, should find a 
grave in this dark land, may it be one that will be a land- 
73 


74 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


mark and an inspiration to others, and may I go to it 
willingly if it is Thy will.’’ 

Three days later we were all overjoyed to meet him in 
Batang. We had waited and prayed for years for this 
promised help, and it was at hand at last. He was a 
man much superior to us in training. His consecration 
and spiritual force were a great joy to us all and a great 
inspiration to every one. ; 

Soon after he arrived, Mr. Ogden and myself, taking 
advantage of the opportunity which came with his com- 
ing, of having a medical man in the station, went on a 
journey, doctoring and preaching, to visit Shangchen, the 
home of the fiercest tribe in all Eastern Tibet. 

During the month that we were gone we had oppor- 
tunity of seeing and knowing these people, about whom 
we had before only heard, and did a great deal of work 
on the way. We went across from Shangchen till we 
struck the banks of the Yangtze River and came back up 
that river valley, stopping at each village to give aid to 
any who might be sick. 

It was a great journey and promised much good in a 
better understanding of the people, and in their having 
a better understanding of us. 

We came back and found Dr. Loftis unpacking his 
goods, which had arrived. A day or two later he was 
somewhat tired out from this work and didn’t care for 
much breakfast. In the meantime he had completely 
captured the hearts of the children of the Mission, espe- 
cially Dorothy, who, now that there was another doctor 
here, did not want her father to attend to any of her 
childish ailments, but would say that she would wait and 
let Dr. Loftis see it. The following day he said he did 
not feel well. He had attended two patients who had 
smallpox, and, although he had been successfully vacci- 


DR. LOFTIS 75 


nated, we wondered whether or not he was to have small- 
pox. On the third day we were somewhat reassured 
when we found that such was the ease, because the erup- 
tion was very light. However, as is usual in such cases, 
when the appearance of the eruption is favourable, the 
fever did not abate but went on. He got steadily worse 
and the eruption of typhus fever joined that of smallpox. 
Smallpox was raging everywhere and no vaccine could 
be procured. Mr. and Mrs. Ogden had taken Baby Ruth 
and gone to the mountains. I was isolated with Dr. 
Loftis. I did all that was possible for me to do. Mr. 
Ogden said he had no fears whatever because the Lord 
would not permit Dr. Loftis to be taken after we had 
waited so long, and he had just reached the field, and 
everything was so full of promise. But one afternoon 
about four o’clock he died. I was alone with him. I 
could not go home for fear of carrying infection. Mr. 
Ogden was in the mountain, so I had two carpenters 
come and prepare a coffin. 

About twelve o’clock in the night, word having been 
sent, Mr. Ogden came down from the mountain through 
the rain and the dark and walked in. His face wore a 
peculiarly hard expression. I was all broken up. 
‘“Well,’’ he said, ‘‘there he is.’”? He added, ‘‘I didn’t 
believe the Lord would let him die. We’ve waited and 
waited and waited for his coming. But there he is.’’ 

We prepared him for burial and, toward morning 
when the coffin was finished, placed him in it. A mili- 
tary officer had heard what had happened and sent his 
messenger to know if there was anything in the world 
that he could do. He sent men to dig the grave and a 
little later sent ten men, with a captain to command 
them, and very slowly and reverently they carried him 
down-stairs and out into the road and up to where the 


76 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


grave was prepared, and there we two laid him to rest. 
His grave stands facing the road that leads to Lassa, the 
capital of the country he had come so far to serve. Six 


weeks was he on the field, and he was not, for God took 
him. 


XII 
DR. HARDY COMES 


‘ ), Y MAT were we to do now? The promised re- 

lief had come and gone. We eabled the 

Board and asked them to send a new man. 

We doubted their ability to do so, for they had been some 

years trying to find a man to come, and yet, God always 
prepares a way. 

When the cable was read, announcing the death of Dr. 
Loftis, and a call for a new man in his place, in his home 
church in Nashville a young man sought out his pastor 
and said, ‘‘I’ll go.’? This young man was Dr. Wm. M. 
Hardy, who would finish his medical work the following 
year. 

We in Batang were stupefied and asked the eternal 
question, ‘‘Why, why?’’ And in an endeavour to find 
the answer to this question, we got closer to the Lord 
than we had ever been. And in so doing the Spirit of 
the Lord was enabled to work and use us as He had 
never been able to do before. 

The school grew in numbers and in effectiveness. A 
great many people that had never come near the church 
before began coming. They wanted to learn and, as 
they came in the right frame of mind, they gave us 
greater opportunities than had ever been ours, and it 
was our constant prayer and is yet, that we may be kept 
to represent Christ to these people. 

77 


78 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


During the fall and winter the work went on and grew 
and prospered as it never had before. The blessing that 
Dr. Loftis had brought to us was to go on and on. 

At length the time came when Dr. Hardy was to come 
and take his place. Meanwhile we were preparing for 
our long journey to America. 

Ju Lama had confessed to me in private that he did 
believe. ‘‘Then,’’ said I, ‘‘why don’t you come out and 
make your confession publicly?’’ ‘‘QOh,’’ he said, ‘‘you 
can’t understand why I don’t. I would be persecuted, per- 
haps killed; I would certainly be left without any way of 
making a living.’’ The night before we left we had a 
long talk together and, although he had come to believe, 
and although he had known us for some years, he came 
to me privately and said, ‘‘ Now, just what is it that you 
want over here? If you will tell me, perhaps I can get 
it for you on the sly.’’? It seemed to be impossible to get 
the idea out of his head that there must be something 
else for which we had come, and that we were hunting 
for some norbu, or treasure, which we would secretly 
take away with us. The idea of anything done altruis- 
tically, or for the good of others, without hope or desire 
of reward, is so utterly foreign to the Tibetans that it 
seems impossible for them to conceive of it. 

We waited till we knew that Dr. Hardy was coming so 
that the station would not be without a medical man for 
a very great length of time, and early in October we 
started on our long trip to America. 

When it came time to say good-bye it was not a pleas- 
ant thing. As the caravan filed out the women were 
standing along the road waiting to say good-bye to Mrs. 
Shelton, erying and offering her, instead of the cus- 
tomary wine, for they knew that we did not drink that, 
milk instead. Every woman insisted that she should at 


DR. HARDY COMES 79 


least taste hers, and she drank milk till she could drink 
no more. 

I had been saying good-bye to friends out along the 
road, and we had at last said good-bye to the Ogden fam- 
ily, who had gone out the road a considerable distance, 
with the schoolboys and other friends. But I had missed 
my teacher, Gezong Ongdu. I wondered if he had not 
come to say good-bye. Going up the road about two 
miles, I saw him standing with one of his friends. I 
rode up, got off my mule, and said, ‘‘ Well, good-bye, 
Gezong.’’ He then held out his hand, but tears came to 
his eyes and he couldn’t speak, so I just got on my mule 
and rode away. 

The journey in the autumn when the days are clear 
and bright, and the view is unobstructed, was beautiful. 
After twenty days we reached Tachienlu without mis- 
hap, and there met Dr. Hardy, who came in two days 
after our arrival. 

We spent a day getting acquainted and then went on; 
he waited for a short time for Mr. Ogden, who met him 
there to escort him through the Tibetan country. 

After eight days we arrived at Yachow, and there our 
land journey ended. We were to make the first stage of 
the journey to Kiating by raft, a distance of about one 
hundred miles. We piled all our goods in the middle of 
the raft on poles, somewhat elevated to keep them dry, 
and we got on top with a piece of matting stretched over 
them, and were off. 

The rafts are some fifty or sixty feet long and from six 
to eight feet wide, and are made by lashing large bam- 
boos together. They are very safe but rather scary, 
especially when going through a rapid, when they bend 
and creak as the water splashes, and the position seems 
very precarious indeed. 


80 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Doris and Dorothy were very much alarmed at the 
first rapid, the second not so much, and by the time we 
had passed the fourth and fifth and come to still water 
again, they were wishing that another rapid would come, 
as it was much more entertaining than drifting down the 
quieter water. 

At Chungking and Suifu we renewed acquaintance 
with friends we had met on our journey out years before. 
It was necessary to stop at each place for a day or two 
to change boats. At Chungking we were again the 
guests of Dr. and Mrs. McCartney. Things there seemed 
quite grand, especially when oil lamps were brought into 
the bedroom. Mrs. Shelton, however, was considerably 
disturbed and blew them out. I asked her why she did 
it and she replied that she was afraid they would blow 
up, so she proceeded to get a candle out of her grip. We 
had become so used to the using of candles that oil lamps 
seemed extraordinary. | 

We went on, stopping only for a day in Nanking. 
We were fortunate in securing passage from Shanghai 
home at once. After eighty-nine days of continuous 
travel, we at length reached our home in America early 
in January. 

The time spent in America passed quickly. Oppor- 
tunity was given for two short sessions in school. It 
doesn’t take a medical man very long on the field to be- 
come a back number, the changes in medicine and sur- 
gery are so rapid. 

I was associated for some months with the Million 
Dollar Campaign, of which Mr. A. E. Cory was the 
leader. 

The time came for returning to Batang, and just as we 
were preparing to start, word came of the Chinese Revo- 
lution, and it was thought best that we postpone our re- 


DR. HARDY COMES 81 


turn, especially as it had become necessary for Mr. and 
Mrs. Ogden and Dr. Hardy to leave Batang. The Chi- 
nese official had reported to them that he would no longer 
be able to protect them, and it was necessary for them to 
go out. 

This they were forced to do, and, owing to the dis- 
turbed state of the country, they were compelled to make 
the journey by the south, en route through Yunnan and 
Indo-China, to Haiphong. 

They encountered many hardships on this forced jour- 
ney, and Mr. and Mrs. Ogden were in rather a serious 
condition of health when they arrived in America. 

Just as soon as it was thought advisable we prepared 
for the return journey. 

We were to build and it had become necessary to pro- 
vide the glass, hinges, screws, nails, roof, paint, ete., 
which could not be secured on the field. 

I also took back with me at the time furnishings for 
the hospital—beds, an operating-table, medicine, ete. 

The greatest blessing that I received during our stay 
at home was in coming to know the great body of people 
that are back of us in the work and whose prayers and 
support lent strength and encouragement to our efforts. 


XIII 
HOMEWARD BOUND TO TIBET 


E were to start on our return journey early 

‘ N in the fall. Our goods had been bought and 

shipped and we were to have a month or 
more to visit our home. However, late in June, it be- 
came necessary for some doctor to go at once to China 
with Mr. James Ware, of Shanghai, whose health was in 
a very critical condition and who could not travel alone. 
I was glad to accompany him as a physician. 

So bidding good-bye to my parents hastily, I took the 
family to the Pacific Coast, where Mrs. Shelton and the 
children were to visit her mother and sister, and then 
went on to Vancouver, where I met Mr. Ware. 

This was one of the great blessings of my life, the 
journey across the Pacific with Mr. Ware. He was a 
rare spirit and, to me, he was a great blessing. 

We arrived in China at the very worst part of the 
year, the middle of August, and were met at the wharf 
by Mr. Ware’s family. He lingered on until near Christ- 
mas, when, after nearly thirty years of service, he passed 
quietly away at his home. 

I spent one night in Shanghai. I stayed in a bedroom 
up-stairs and, after getting the bed all wet with sweat, 
I moved out into the hall and lay there. After I had the 
carpet sufficiently saturated, I gathered up a sheet and 
quilt and moved to the yard, where I succeeded in obvi- 
ating the necessity of having the lawn mowed by rolling 
around on the grass from then on until morning. Every 

82 


HOMEWARD BOUND TO TIBET 83 


mosquito in Eastern China, hearing that I had just re- 
turned from America in rather a corpulent state, came to 
have a feast. 

The next day I went to Kuling, where most of the folk 
go for six weeks during the hottest part of the year. It 
was considerably cooler than in Shanghai and down on 
the plain, but it was necessary to give your shoes a good 
going over in the morning in order to remove the mould 
which had accumulated during the night. 

It was there that I met Dr. Hardy again. He had not 
returned to America but had remained in China. He 
had, in the meantime, succeeded in acquiring reinforce- 
ments for Batang by marrying Miss Nina Palmer, who 
had gone out to Nanking as a missionary. 

I also met Mr. and Mrs. Baker, who had come out the 
year previous and had been in China studying the lan- 
guage. I also met Johnny, who had, during the time I 
had been home, been employed as a doctor in the Chinese 
army. He also had acquired a wife. I waited there 
for some six weeks until Mrs. Shelton and the girls ar- 
rived in Shanghai. 

After their arrival we started, together with Dr. and 
Mrs. Hardy, for Tibet. Mr. and Mrs. Baker were to 
stay in China for a short time yet, as James Baker, who 
had just made his appearance, was too young to travel. 

After a thousand-mile trip up the river we arrived at 
Ichang, where we were compelled to wait for some time 
reassembling our belongings and waiting for some of the 
things which had been delayed in transit. 

It was during our stay there that one of the go-downs, 
or storehouses, in which our goods were, burned down, 
and, for a time, it appeared as if everything was lost. 

It was there that we tried a new experiment. It had 
formerly taken a month to make the journey from 


84 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Ichang to Chungking. A small steamer was now run- 
ning between these two places and we decided to take 
passage on it, leaving our goods to come up by junk. 
We did this and arrived in Chungking in five days in- 
stead of thirty. 

We were compelled to await in Chungking the arrival 
of our goods. It was some two months before we were 
ready to proceed. 

It was necessary now to take to the house-boats. Some 
three wecks later, arriving at Kiating and loading our 
stuff on rafts, we set out for Yachow. 

There it became necessary that all our belongings, 
building material, medicine, beds, hospital supplies, 
should be transferred from water to land. Some hun- 
dred or more coolies had to be engaged for their trans- 
portation to Tachienlu. This seemed to be an endless 
job and, though men were sent along to watch and take 
eare of the things en route, some of the things never did 
come to hand. 

This is one of the penalties you pay in travelling in 
China, but if the greater part of your goods arrive you 
should consider yourself very fortunate and be thankful. 

While waiting in Tachienlu, we heard that Mr. and 
Mrs. Ogden and Mr. and Mrs. Baker were on the way. 
Not having such a tremendous amount of goods as it was 
necessary for us to transport, they were able to travel 
much more rapidly than we were. So, after waiting for 
a month or more, we were joined by them. 

It was there that the whole Mission was together for 
the first time. We took advantage of the opportunity to 
have our first regular Mission meeting and to decide 
what was to be done. 

We were to go on in three parties, yak had been hired 
for transporting our goods, that is, such as had arrived, 


HOMEWARD BOUND TO TIBET 85 


and Mrs. Shelton and the children and I were off to- 
gether, Dr. Hardy was to follow in a few days, it being 
very difficult to secure at one time the required number 
of yak for such an occasion. 

To get to Batang it was necessary to go by the north- 
ern road, as robbers were rampant on the main road. 
This made the journey very much longer. It required a 
month’s time to make the journey on the northern road, 
while by the southern road it could be done easily in 
from eighteen to twenty days. 

However, there was no help for it, as the Chinese of- 
ficials absolutely refused permission to travel by the 
southern route, one of the French Fathers having 
been killed near Litang by robbers the day previous. 
He was not only killed but his body was badly muti- 
lated. 

While we were in Tachienlu, Dorothy’s birthday oc- 
eurred. Mr. Clements, of the China Inland Mission, 
made her a present of a large black hen. This hen was 
sonsiderable of a pet and Dorothy would carry her 
around and sit with her in her lap and feed her, but be- 
fore a great while, Annie decided that she wanted to set. 
So nothing would do Dorothy but that she must get some 
eggs and let her set. 

When she had been setting about two weeks, it came 
time for us to go. What was to be done with Annie? 
Dorothy would not hear of leaving her behind nor could 
we break up her setting, so Dorothy solved the whole 
problem by having her put in a low basket, eggs and all, 
and slipping the basket under the seat of her chair. 

When we reached Dawo the eggs began to hatch and 
soon we had seven or eight little chickens. It came to be 
that whenever the chair stopped, Annie would begin to 
cluck very vigorously to get out with her brood. They 


86 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


would be let out in the grass and fed and then when 
ready to move on again they would all be caught and put 
back in the basket and shoved under the seat. 

This went on day after day. One night we were stop- 
ping in an old house and Annie and her chickens were 
roaming around the room playing, when suddenly an old 
cat Jumped into the room and, before it could be pre- 
vented, killed two of the chickens. There was great 
consternation and it appeared as if some of the family 
had been killed, nor was it long before the spirit of the 
cat had gone to join the chickens, 

When we arrived in Batang these chickens were al- 
most three weeks old. They prospered and Annie and 
her son, Pete, and her daughter Polly, had become the 
progenitors of a great army of chickens that now inhabit 
the valley. The Tibetan chickens are small and Annie 
has proved a blessing to a good many people and to the 
country at large in that not only the chickens, but the 
eggs over the whole country, have been improved. Annie 
is well along in years now, but is still boss of the whole 
barnyard. 

At one place along the road our cook thought it neces- 
sary to open up a food box which was on a very wild yak. 
During the operation the yak became frightened, gave 
a sudden jump, and away he went, and the manner in 
which he scattered food, tin cans, plates, knives, forks, 
and spoons, over that stretch of the road, would have 
done credit to a street sprinkler. The sight of the cook 
standing with his hands outstretched, and with a look of 
horror on his face, as he watched the performance, was 
ample repayment for any damage that was done. 

While we were at Dawo we met one of the Catholic 
Fathers who was in charge of the work there. He came 
to see us and asked if it were possible for me to stop over 


HOMEWARD BOUND TO TIBET 87 


a day. He said that one of his men was very grievously 
wounded and he wanted me to attend him. 

I saw the man and found that he was suffering from 
an old gunshot wound of the knee. The bones were 
smashed and torn and the leg was greatly deformed. 
The leg was perfectly useless. I stopped the next day 
and amputated it. 

This also it was necessary to do in the open where 
every one could see what was being done, in order to 
allay suspicion. People climbed up on everything avail- 
able, and from a hundred to a hundred and fifty people, 
with the accompaniment of groans and ejaculations, 
watched while the leg was being amputated. 

Without further unpleasantness other than that com- 
mon to travelling in high altitudes and among nomads of 
a somewhat turbulent disposition, after twenty-nine days 
we were hearing Batang and the journey was over. 


XIV 
ARRIVAL 


N nearing Batang we began to meet people that 
O we knew, and when we were within two or 
three miles of the town we began to meet the 
people who had come out to meet us. They all seemed 
glad to see us and gave us a very hearty welcome back. 
Among these were Gway Gwang and Gway Yin, the two 
orphan boys that I had taken some years before to raise. 
In the meantime Gway Gwang married, and shortly be- 
fore we arrived in Batang his wife died, leaving him 
with a small girl baby to care for. He was consid- 
erably broken up over the matter and had a very hard 
time of it. 

During the Revolution, when the city had been sur- 
rounded by turbulent Tibetans for more than forty days, 
the people died in great numbers as the result of some 
plague. I have never been able to decide from the de- 
seriptions what this plague was. 

We found that conditions were very bad. During the 
time of the fight, while we had been gone, our dispensary 
had been broken into, the microscope, many instruments 
and drugs had been stolen (not that those who had taken 
the drugs had any use for them or needed them; that 
would have been quite all right could they have been of 
service, but they were taken and poured out and thrown 
away). Drugs to the value of some hundreds of dollars 
were destroyed in order to secure the bottles to put 
wine in. 

88 


ARRIVAL 89 


‘ Many thousands of our brick had been carried away to 
make barricades. People had taken them to build stoves; 
the lumber, also, which we had prepared, had suffered to 
some extent, though not as greatly as we had at first 
thought. 

When Mr. Ogden and Dr. Hardy left it was necessary 
for them to leave on a few hours’ notice. As a conse- 
quence, it was impossible for them to pack and store all 
goods and belongings of the Mission, Consequently, the 
houses were all broken into and the goods stolen. The 
loss was considerable. Our rugs, beds, clothing, table 
ware, etc., had all been carried off, including a fine ele- 
phant tusk that had been given to Mrs. Shelton shortly 
before we left Batang for home by the Nepalese Ambas- 
sador on his regular journey carrying tribute to Peking. 

We were asked by the Chinese Governor to make an 
estimate of the loss incurred and we were assured that 
this would be made good. The loss was estimated very 
carefully and very conservatively, as we preferred that 
it should be underestimated rather than overestimated, 
as we feared that the people of the place might be forced 
to pay it, while as a matter of fact, the actual thieving 
had been done by the soldiers to a large extent and under 
the direction of one of their officials. 

For many months after returning I would occasionally 
find a pair of hinges in a shop for sale, or go into a man’s 
house and find there one of our chairs. Mrs. Ogden’s 
fruit jars had been in great demand as containers for 
wine and were scattered all over the town. As to what 
became of the microscope it was never definitely learned, 
but we were informed on fairly good authority that it 
had been taken by the commanding General. 

Mrs. Shelton’s greatest trial was not the loss of her 
goods, serious as this was, but it was the cutting of the 


90 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


great walnut tree in our yard and which could never be 
replaced. It had been a place of shade and rest and her 
greatest joy in the little home we were occupying. 

As soon as we arrived friends and neighbours began 
coming in, wanting to assist in one way or another, reno- 
vating the house and getting things in shape. 

It was a great privilege, after so long a journey, to be 
in a place where it would not be necessary to get up be- 
fore daylight and get ready for the road again, and 
where it would be possible to have a bath once in a while, 
and where we could open the boxes containing our be- 
longings, and have them at hand where we could use 
them, and not have to be content with the knowledge that 
we had them, but they were inaccessible. 

Some days after our arrival Dr. Hardy came in, and a 
month or two later Mr. Ogden and Mr. Baker, with their 
families. We were all at home at last, all the members 
of the Mission, and ready for work, which was begun in 
earnest and at once. 

Gway Gwang had been able to conserve considerable 
of the work. Although greatly hampered and hindered 
and many times without funds, he was now greatly 
elated that things were to go forward once more and 
with redoubled energy. 


XV 
DRAYA 


HORTLY after our arrival in Batang I was asked 
S by the commanding General if I would go to 

Draya to attend to the wounded. The Chinese 
and Tibetans had been fighting, and there were a great 
many wounded, and help was urgently needed at that 
place. So just as quickly as possible, medicine, instru- 
ments, bandages, ete., were packed, and with Mr. Bu as 
assistant I started off for Draya, some ten days to the 
northwest. 

For the first three or four days of the journey we were 
in the company of the General himself, as he too was 
going to Draya. After we had been travelling two or 
three days it appeared that the progress of his column 
would be much too slow, as he had some hundreds of men 
with him. So we asked permission to go on in advance. 

He was very reluctant to have us do so, as bands of 
robbers were all along the road, and he was afraid that 
we would be in danger. At length, however, he agreed 
to send us on with an escort of fifty soldiers. We 
went for some days without incident until we were near 
Draya, when it became necessary to ford one of the 
rivers. 

This river, owing to the recent heavy rain, was very 
high, and when we had reached the banks we were told 
by the villagers that it would be absolutely impossible to 
ford it for perhaps another forty-eight hours, and then 
only in the event that there should be no more rain in 
that time. 

91 


92 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


We stopped for the night and the rain recommenced, 
but fortunately did not last long. The next day was 
bright and clear, but the flood showed no signs of abat- 
ing. 

We waited another night and the next morning we 
were awakened before daylight. There is an idea in the 
minds of Tibetans, whether true or not, that the force of 
the water is less just at daylight than at any other time. 
The whole party was out and ready to cross when day 
began to dawn. They had told us that it would be pos- 
sible to cross when a small island of rock in the middle 
of the river would begin to show. I asked them if they 
could see the island. ‘‘Yes,’’ they said, ‘‘you can see 
where it is, and we have made arrangements for you to 
cross.’” 

Riding down to the bank of the river I saw a sight 
such as I had never imagined before. In preparation 
for our crossing the Tibetans had driven down from the 
mountains about a hundred yak which they had driven 
into the river and by the use of stones, which they threw 
at them, had forced them into a continuous string across 
the river with their heads up-stream. They were hold- 
ing their own as best they could against the force of the 
flood, one occasionally being carried away for a few min- 
utes but being driven back by people standing on the 
bank both above and below and throwing stones at them. 

The yak were for the purpose of breaking the force of 
the rushing stream, and we crossed immediately at their 
tails, they holding their position with their hind fect and 
their noses sticking out of the water. It was a weird 
sight, and, although it was August, the frost had already 
come and the water was exceedingly cold, and we were 
chilled to the bone before we got across. 

But that cold was as nothing compared to the necessity 


DRAYA 93 


of sitting down on the opposite bank and changing 
clothes. : 

However, the crossing was successfully accomplished, 
and no one was drowned, for which we were truly thank- 
ful. The following afternoon we arrived at Draya. 

On arriving at Draya our first care was, of course, for 
the wounded. Work was begun the next day and con- 
tinued daily until all necessary operations had been per- 
formed. 

During the afternoons I was too tired to work further 
and all had been accomplished for the day that could be 
done. I strolled about the place seeing the sights. One 
sight which attracted my attention at once was a large 
iron cauldron sitting on three stones in the middle of one 
of the squares. As it had grease around its sides I asked 
what might be its purpose. The man whom I asked 
said, ‘‘Hush, [7] tell you what they use it for, but don’t 
talk much about it because there are some folks that 
don’t like to hear about it. That is where we cook Ti- 
betans.’’ And then gradually came out the whole grue- 
some story which came near causing me to have a fight. 

Some ten days before, the Chinese Colonel command- 
ing in this place had succeeded in capturing some forty- 
five or fifty Tibetans. He thought to make himself par- 
ticularly feared by the Tibetans, so he decided to make 
an example of these persons. Three of them had one 
after another been placed in this cauldron in cold water, 
tied hand and foot, but with their heads propped up, and 
then a fire built under the cauldron and slowly the water 
was brought to a boil. The skeletons were lying bare on 
the stones near by, the flesh having all been eaten by the 
dogs. Others had had oil poured upon them and been 
burned alive. Others had their hands cut off and sent 
back as a warning to those from whom they came. 


94 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Others had been taken and, with yak hitched to each arm 
and each leg, had been torn in pieces. 

We worked hard during the time of our stay and at 
the end of ten days, having left bandages and dressings 
with the Chinese doctor who was already there and who 
was provided with nothing at all, we began our journey 
home. 

On the way back, before reaching Jangka, we were 
met by a caravan whose leader stopped us and asked us 
if we would please attend to a wounded man. I asked 
what the trouble was. He told me that they had been 
attacked by robbers a half-hour ago and that one of his 
men had been just about killed and was lying a short 
distance back in the road. 

He went back with us and there we found a man along 
the side of the road with a long gash in his head. The 
knife had passed completely through the skull and the 
brain was throbbing in plain sight, the blade having 
turned and pried up a part of the skull. 

There we were on the road, miles from any habitation. 
Nothing more could be done than simply to cleanse the 
wound and sew it up, which we did, and there at the side 
of the road we left the man lying on the grass. 

We had to go on and leave him, but some months later 
I was rejoiced to see this same man again, active and 
going about his business, though with a great deformity 
on his head where the bone had been raised and had 
never been put back in place. 

Such is some of the medical work that a doctor in this 
outpost, with no other doctor within seven hundred 
miles, is called upon to do. 


XVI 
BUILDING AND IRRIGATING 


all the work and had considerable difficulty. It 

seemed to be impossible to secure any land that was 
then in proper condition. The only thing that offered 
was a piece of waste land that no one else wanted, cov- 
ered with graves, brush, rock, and in every way undesir- 
able. 

This land belonged to the Government, and they 
finally agreed that we might have it for the ordinary 
rental, or sixty ounces of silver. It was accordingly se- 
cured and before they had to come home Mr. Ogden and 
Dr. Hardy had the graves removed. But during the 
Revolution more had been buried there, though not very 
many. 

It now became necessary to define the boundaries of 
this lot, which, after a long time, in the presence of the 
loeal official, was done, and stones for the marking of the 
same were put up. 

There were to be erected two residences, the hospital, 
and some barns and outhouses. The next thing was to 
decide where these buildings should be located. Then 
we had to face the problem of securing a supply of 
water for the place. We considered for a time using an 
hydraulic ram, but after getting estimates as to the 
amount of water it would be able to lift and the probable 
cost, it was found that it would be in no way adequate. 

We also considered putting up a battery of windmills 

95 


|: the securing of land Mr. Ogden had done almost 


96 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


to lift the water a sufficient distance so that it would 
flow on to the land. After a thorough study it appeared 
that neither of these would answer the purpose. As a 
consequence, it appeared as if the only other alternative, 
that of a ditch, would be the only method by which we 
could secure the requisite amount of water. 

We had been afraid the cost of this would be pro- 
hibitive, as after surveying with an instrument from the 
highest point of the land nearest inland where water 
could be obtained, a distance of about two miles, it was 
found that it would be necessary to carry the water in 
flumes for a considerable distance around perpendicular 
cliffs. 

As there was nothing else to do we contracted for the 
digging of the ditch around the edge of the mountain, 
across gullies, and above the eliffs. The people would not 
enter into a contract for the putting up of the flumes, as 
they knew nothing whatever about such things, so it be- 
came necessary for us to do that ourselves. 

This task was given over to Mr. Baker, and it was sur- 
prising in how short a time the ditch was constructed, 
and it was rather surprising, too, that it had cost no 
more money than it did. A thousand dollars had been 
given for the purpose. This was more than sufficient to 
construct the ditch; there was left enough in hand for 
maintenance for two or three years. 

As soon as it became apparent that the ditch was going 
to be a success, the land adjoining that which had been 
granted us by the Government became, in the eyes of 
other folk, very valuable, and there was a rush to secure 
the same. Land was opened up on all sides, and while 
we had been allowed to build the ditch, the title for the 
same had been retained by the Chinese Government with 
the understanding that we, after building, should have 


BUILDING AND IRRIGATING 97 


first water rights but that we should have no say as to 
what should be done with any superfluous water. 

It was soon found that the ditch we had built, while 
sufficient for our own needs, was not sufficient also for 
all the additional land which had been opened up adjoin- 
ing ours. 

As a consequence, the owners of the land adjoining 
went in together and raised a fund for enlarging the 
ditch to about twice its original size. Another flume was 
laid at the side and now there is water for all concerned 
and, in addition to the nine acres taken up by the 
Mission, land adjoining sufficient for the maintenance 
of twenty families has been opened up. 

The plans for the houses were drawn up subject to 
criticism by the Mission, and again redrawn and brought 
up for review, until at last a plan was secured which was 
adopted by the Mission as the one to be used in building 
our residences. This we considered to be an important 
thing, as it would obviate any misunderstanding that 
might arise in later years. 

We had been greatly influenced both in the building 
of the hospital and in the erection of the dwellings by 
the recommendations of Mr. Clark, with whom I had 
a conversation on the way up river. Mr. Clark was a 
man who, on behalf of the London Mission, had given 
many years to the study of mission problems. One of 
his recommendations was that the native plan of house 
be used, so that with what improvements were able to 
be introduced, it would be to the people of the place an 
example and an incentive to improve their houses. He 
said that it was quite often the case that the introduction 
of a purely foreign house in a community rather dis- 
couraged than encouraged the people in improving 
their own, but that if the native form of house could 


98 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


be used with such improvements as the Westerner was 
able to make use of in its construction, great advantage 
not only to the natives, but in the matter of cost, would 
be the result. We believed that his argument was well 
founded and we went forward in this way. 

And so the hospital and the residences are of native 
construction, that is, the walls are of adobe, built some- 
what more substantially than their own and with greater 
care, so the cracks do not appear. ‘These walls are ex- 
eeedingly strong and if protected thoroughly from 
water getting into the top of the wall, will last for untold 
years. 

The contract for building the walls was given to a 
man who was said to be the best wall builder in the 
country. His reputation as to ability was correct, but 
a more dissolute old drunkard it was never my lot to 
sce. However, he was quite strict with the rest of his 
crew and reserved to himself the privilege of getting 
drunk at all times whenever he might desire, which was 
almost every afternoon. In these circumstances it was 
a great trial to get the work forward, but he did good 
work. 

I had many talks with the old fellow, trying to get 
him to quit the use of this thing which was killing him. 
But it was no use, and shortly after the completion of 
the walls he died very suddenly. 

It had become necessary, also, while the walls were 
being built, that carpenters should be working preparing 
the window frames. These were made from the lumber 
that had been gotten out some years before and which 
was now well seasoned. In order to withstand the lateral 
and vertical pressure put upon them, these frames were 
made of four inch stuff. 

The process of building was somewhat slow and tedi- 


BUILDING AND IRRIGATING 99 


ous. It became necessary to prepare further timbers 
for the construction of the interior framework. I kept 
a force of fifteen or twenty men in the mountains getting 
out this timber. There was a force of about twenty 
carpenters, mud builders, cement makers, lime burners, 
plasterers, and what not. 

Every problem that came up was a new one for me. 
I had had no training as a builder but by persistent 
study and effort the difficulties were overcome, and the 
work went forward. 

In the time of building there was only one accident 
worthy of note. Two men who were working on the 
scaffold on the third story of the hospital fell when the 
scaffolding gave way, and one was killed. The other 
escaped with a broken arm. I regretted this more than 
I can say, but it seemed a thing that could not be fore- 
seen, as the timbers which gave way appeared to be very 
strong. 

At last the buildings were nearing completion. Four- 
teen years after coming to the field we were to have a 
new house. We had been quite comfortable in the 
native houses at times. We had, at other times, how- 
ever, been somewhat uncomfortable, especially when dur- 
ing a rain lasting all night, the mud roof would suddenly 
give way and a flood of mud and water land on the bed 
in which we were sleeping. The houses have ample 
room to make any family very comfortable and at a very 
moderate cost. 

The hospital is of sufficient size to accommodate fifty 
persons and in emergency could be made to accommodate 
aS many more. Shortly before Dr. Hardy ieft for fur- 
lough it became possible to open the hospital. The 
finishing touches were added, the dispensary was moved 
in and the formal opening announced. 


100 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


As is the custom in this country, quite a great many 
friends were invited to a dinner which, though not 
elaborate, was greatly enjoyed. The military and sev- 
eral officials, as well as several others, brought scrolls 
with complimentary sentiments written in white and 
gold on three large boards, extolling the virtues of the 
hospital and what it was able to do. These were hung 
in the guest room facing the entrance to the great yard. 

Thus was built and put in commission the first hos- 
pital in the Tibetan country, and we hope and trust 
that it may be to these people all that is hoped for it. 


XVII 
ITINERATING 


NE year, just after Christmas, I decided that I 
() would go to Adensi. This is the border town 

between the Chinese and Tibetan population of 
Yunnan occupying a position somewhat similar to that 
of Tachienlu, being the mart where Chinese and Tibetans 
exchange goods in a considerable quantity, and is both a 
starting place of the yearly caravans to Lassa, and also 
a place to which they return every winter after their 
long trip to the capital. These caravans are made up of 
people from different parts of the country to the east, 
southeast, and northeast, of Adensi, but this is the as- 
sembling point. 

I started off down the Yangtze River just after Christ- 
mas, going down for the first half day to a place where 
it is possible to let animals rest while we go down in 
the skin boats. These skin boats, or coracles, are made 
by stretching the skin of yak over a framework of 
switches. While they are very light and very frail, still 
when properly loaded they will hold a considerable 
weight, and it is very much more pleasant to accomplish 
the half day journey floating swiftly down with the 
current in two hours, what it takes you some five or six 
hours to accomplish by road. 

The second day we got out of the valley and up into 
the highlands. At that time of year it is very cold but 
the sun is usually bright and the air dry, so that it is 

101 


102 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


very pleasant. The third day out we arrived at Janiding. 
We had intended to go on to Tsonggnen but we found 
that it would put us in too late, so rather than have to 
travel after night we stopped there. 

The next morning bright and early we were out on 
the road and toward nine o’clock were near the village 
where we should have stayed the night before. 

We saw a great smoke arising and then some one said, 
**It looks as if some one’s house is on fire.’’ We rode on 
rapidly and when we came in sight of the village we 
found that the house of the headman, with whom we 
were to have spent the night, was a smouldering mass of 
ruins. We saw the people standing around apparently 
helpless, and rode up to inquire how it happened to 
burn. Although these people appear to be exceedingly 
careless with fire, using torches in going through the 
house at night and into the barn, it is remarkable how 
few are the fires. 

On nearing the place we came suddenly upon the 
body of a man who had been riddled with bullets. We 
rode a little farther and found a young child who had 
been stabbed with a bayonet and thrown where it was 
lying. A little farther and near the door, was an old 
grandmother, whose body was partially burned, and so 
on and so on. Only one member of the household, a 
boy of fourteen years old, had escaped destruction. He 
had crawled under a grain box in the lower story and 
although in imminent danger of being suffocated and 
buried alive, had held his position until the worst was 
over and had thus been saved. 

Some years before, this headman had been the instru- 
ment in the hands of the Chinese official of exterminating 
a family in a neighbouring town for, as the Chinese of- 
ficial had claimed, disloyalty to the Government. The 


; ITINERATING 103 


family had been wiped out with the exception of one son 
about twelve or thirteen years old. Curiously enough, 
the deaths in this case had been twelve, one member of 
the family escaping. The work upon which we were 
gazing now had been the work of a party led by the 
surviving son. 

Such things are very common among the Tibetans, 
and are caused by the old feud spirit. It is incumbent 
upon the son to take up and carry on the feud of the 
family. If he does not, he is looked upon with aversion 
by his family and friends. There is now left in each 
of these families one son. Their only remaining busi- 
ness in life is the destruction of each other. 

I talked later with the surviving son of this family 
which had just been destroyed. He was very calm about 
it. I asked him what his plans were, if he were not go- 
ing to school, if he were not going to prepare himself for 
some position of usefulness. He replied, ‘‘ I have just 
one business and one thing for which to prepare and that 
is to kill ,’? naming the man who had led the party 
of destruction. 

These feuds are pitiful things. Some of our friends 
in Batang are bound up in this way and as the years 
go on, unless they break the custom and the force of 
tradition that binds them, some who are now in their 
boyhood and are friends, on reaching maturity, must 
take up and carry forward old feuds whose origins are 
lost in the far distant past. 

Going on, we arrived two days later at Yenjin (salt 
wells). There we spent two or three days looking over 
the salt wells and the methods and manner of manufac- 
turing salt. This is a very important industry in this 
part of the country, for people come for many weeks’ 
journey to buy this salt and to carry it far into the in- 





104 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


terior, especially toward the north and northeast. The 
salt is obtained during the winter and early spring by 
taking the water from the shallow wells near the edge 
of the river. The water in these wells is very briney. 

It is carried up on women’s backs in kegs on to roofs 
built of mud in the shape of small boats. There the 
water is allowed to evaporate, which it does at a very 
rapid rate, the wind being up the valley, and during 
these months being very strong and very dry. 

When the water has evaporated, it leaves a thin layer 
of salt on the floor. This is swept up, together with the 
dirt and rocks which come with it. This is taken and 
carried to the most remote parts of the country. 

During my stay in Yenjin I was asked to be the guest 
of the Catholic priest. He is a young man, an Alsatian, 
and is very capable. I furnished him with vaccine for 
vaccinating some two hundred people; this he used to 
very great advantage. 

The road after leaving Yenjin goes down the banks 
of the Mekong and in places is very dangerous, being 
sometimes built on stakes driven into holes bored in the 
stone, upon which are placed the planks which make 
the road, while fifty to one hundred feet below is the 
river. 

The foolhardiness of some of the men in riding 
through some of these places instead of dismounting and 
walking was very great. Occasionally a man goes over, 
horse and all, and when he does there is just the plunk. 

In Adensi I met a great many old friends whom I had 
known formerly in Batang. With Mr. Bu’s help I did 
quite a few operations and I vaccinated a great many 
children. In all my travelling my first care in every 
village, no matter where, is that all sick should be 
attended to to the best of our ability. There was sta- 


ITINERATING 105 


tioned here in Adensi a Frenchman, Mr. Perrone, a 
musk merchant. He had many times assisted us in 
business transactions for which we were very grateful. 
The greater part of the world’s supply of musk comes 
from the eastern Himalayas. 

In returning home to Batang we did not come by the 
same road but came across T'sali, the great pass which 
lies between Batang and Adensi, and which is about 
sixteen thousand feet high. This pass is missed by going 
the longer way round. 

The night spent at the foot of the pass, sleeping out 
under the stars, although very cold was very pleasant, 
and the view the next morning from the top of the pass 
was one not to be surpassed. 

After these trips, no matter whether long or short, as 
I began to get nearer home the stages gradually 
lengthened, and my mule appeared to be just as anxious 
to get home as I was, so that quite often we would get 
home one day or even two days before we were expected. 

Home! It’s the only place of rest in all the thousands 
of miles of mountain travel. 


XVIII 
MORE ITINERATING 


north of Batang to visit Jeykundo, the seat of a 

great annual fair or meeting place for traders from 
all over Tibet, far eastern China and Mongolia. This 
fair takes place annually on the fifteenth day of the 
fifth month. There opportunity is offered for getting 
acquainted with people from all over the country, and 
it appeared to me a desirable thing to go. 

Accordingly, setting out with a good supply of medi- 
cines, instruments, and such literature as might be 
used, we started off. The first place of importance at 
which we halted was Peheu. I was there again almost 
a year later attending wounded men from the Tibetan 
and Chinese fighting. 

The Chinese commander was very much exercised over 
the fact that I was there at all, as he feared that I might 
get hurt in the fight and asked that I return as quickly 
as possible to one of the strongholds half-way to Batang 
where I could operate in peace behind heavy walls. 
We were never molested, however, in any way and were 
treated with respect and courtesy by both Chinese and 
Tibetans. 

It was while stopping at this place that I was the 
innocent cause of very great embarrassment on the part 
of one of the Tibetan headmen. There is, in this coun- 
try, a very large marmot. This animal becomes very 

106 


le now became my intention to make a trip far to the 


MORE ITINERATING 107 


fat at a certain time, and it appeared to us that the 
contention of the Chinese coolies, that it was very ex- 
cellent meat, was well founded. 

We decided that we would at least try it and I ac- 
cordingly killed two and when we got in, Andru had 
skinned and cleaned them. After boiling them for 
a while, he had changed the water and then had boiled 
them almost all night. The next morning they were very, 
very tender and very good. While I was eating break- 
fast one of the headmen came in. I asked him to sit 
down and have breakfast with me. After some little 
persuasion he did so. I gave him a large piece of bread 
and a piece of this meat which disappeared very rapidly. 
I helped him a second time. This also went the same 
way. He had just finished the third supply when my 
teacher, who had been out, came in and seeing him eating 
marmot, let out an exclamation and said, ‘‘ What in the 
world are you doing eating marmot ?’’ 

These marmots are considered to be the incarnations 
of Lamas, and during their long hibernations in the 
winter are supposed to be meditating on the doctrines of 
the Goddess of Mercy, and it is considered a very great 
sin to eat one of them. 

This man had already eaten three large pieces but 
when informed by my teacher that he was eating marmot, 
his face was for the moment one of consternation; then 
remembering how good it was he had quickly recovered 
and said, ‘‘ Well, it can’t be helped now, so I might as 
well go on with the rest of it.”’ 

This idea of an animal praying and meditating is not 
confined to the marmot, but the cat, when she purrs, is 
supposed to be praying, and although she may kill a lot 
of birds, rats and other things, she is laying up merit 
by the many prayers which she utters. She is also re- 


108 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


ceiving absolution for the sins of having killed a rat or 
a bird. 

After we had left Peheu, we went directly up one of the 
highest passes in that part of the country. It was the 
ninth day of June and yet it was the heaviest snow 
through which I had ever passed. The snow on the far 
side of the pass was about four feet deep. We hap- 
pened to be the first party over after the fall, and it 
was impossible to tell where the road ran. 

I was in the lead and it being impossible for the mule 
to make his way without falling down, I dismounted and 
was wallowing through, leading the mule behind. My 
assistant, Mr. Bu, who was with me, was very reluctant 
to dismount and determined that he was going to ride 
through. His horse would struggle along for a few 
steps through the snow, when he would stop, stumbling 
over a snow-bank, and throw Mr. Bu over his head into 
the drifts. Mr. Bu would come up spluttering, wiping 
the snow from his neck and ears and face, but not to be 
deterred, would get on again only to have the perform- 
ance repeated. It was only after repeated attempts and 
failures that he was forced to get down and plow through 
as I had done, utilizing as best he could, the slight path 
we had made. A mile below the snow ceased and we 
were again on bare ground. 

That night we reached Hobo where are made the 
teapots, saddle fittings, sword scabbards and swords 
that are famous through all Tibet. Some of the teapots 
are really works of art and are very beautiful, being 
made of hammered brass or nickel or silver, and the 
trimmings are of a metal of a different colour from that 
of the bowl. If the bowl is white then the handle and 
spout will be yellow, and so on. 

Two days later we arrived in Derge. Derge is the 





ONE OF THE IMAGES IN YARA GONG TEMPLE 






a. 


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B 





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te ee! , & e 
We ate oi 





MORE ITINERATING 109 


name of the Province, the capital of which is called 
Gonchin, which means great lamasery. There is lo- 
cated the other great printing establishment of eastern 
Tibet where are not only the blocks for printing the 
hundred and eight volumes of the Gangur, but also the 
blocks for the printing of the two hundred and sixteen 
volumes of the Tanjur, which latter are the commentaries 
on the former. There are here also blocks for the print- 
ing of several volumes on medicine. A few books of 
stories and a few volumes of history are also found there. 

I made inquiries as to the cost of these and found that 
the cost of the Gangur, which is printed in red, is about 
twelve hundred rupees, and the cost of the Tanjur is 
about sixteen hundred rupees, wnich at the present rate 
of exchange is about six and eight hundred dollars, 
respectively. 

We had been some four days in this place doctoring 
the people, distributing literature and being entertained, 
and were to leave early the next morning. We were not 
yet out of town when we met a man from Batang. He 
brought letters saying that Mrs. Baker was very seri- 
ously ill and stating that I should use my own best 
judgment about returning, saying that it would prob- 
ably be too late or that she would be considerably better 
before I could return. 

There was nothing else to do. The man had covered 
the ten days’ journey in six days on foot. His feet 
were blistered and he was worn out and past going. I 
gave him money for the return journey, took the horse 
containing my bedding, a little food in my saddle-bags, 
and letting Mr. Bu, my assistant, and Gezong Ongdu, 
my teacher, resume the journey on as far as Chamdo, I 
began the return journey to Batang. 

We travelled till far in the night, only stopping for a 


110 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


few hours’ rest and were on again before daylight. In 
this way we covered the distance, that had taken us 
almost two weeks coming, in four and a half days, 
arriving at Batang a little after noon where I was 
overjoyed to find that Mrs. Baker, under Dr. Hardy’s 
care, was progressing very rapidly. 

This is one of the things that makes travelling un- 
pleasant, the constant fear that everything may not be 
well at home, and the time that it takes to receive and 
reply to a message from home. 


XIX 
VISITORS 


URING the years that have passed one of the 
1) great events has always been a visit from any 

European. Being so far from neighbours, it 
is very seldom that any one comes our way. 

At Tachienlu we had visitors much more frequently, 
but in Batang, being eighteen days farther away, visitors 
were extremely scarce. One of the first visitors whose 
stay in Batang we appreciated very much, was His 
Highness the Nepalese Ambassador on his way to and 
return from Peking, when he went on his last journey 
taking tribute to the Chinese Emperor. 

This tribute has been taken regularly every ten years 
for the last hundred and thirty years, following the 
invasion of Nepal by a Chinese army. 

It was a great sight to see the caravan numbering some 
five hundred animals, the Ambassador’s chair being car- 
ried by many men, he dressed in his robes of cloth of 
gold, a man running at the side of his chair carrying 
his long ‘‘hoo ka’’ or water pipe. 

On his return journey he stopped for some days in 
Batang. During this time he visited us. He spoke 
English very well, and was a very pleasant man. He 
carried with him his own private musician, whom he 
very kindly had sing and play for us, and the weird 
songs and airs were very much appreciated. 

The Er Kagi, or his lieutenant, liked to come and visit 
very well and, while he could speak but very little 

111 


112 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Chinese and no English at all, we managed to get along 
quite well. He was a very large man of a very jolly 
disposition and took delight in showing us his purchases 
which he had made in Peking. The tribute which had 
been taken to Peking consisted of a great ivory tusk, 
saffron flowers, cloth of gold, jewels, and many other 
articles from Nepal and India, and in return the 
Chinese Emperor had sent to the Maharajah silks, satins, 
embroideries, carved beads, etc. The main business of 
the expedition, outside of conveying the tribute, seemed 
to be the trade carried on by the individuals themselves. 
His Excellency insisted on making presents to Mrs. 
Shelton and the girls. To Mrs. Shelton he gave the 
small elephant tusk which was afterward stolen during 
the Chinese Revolution. 

At that time we were just preparing to leave for 
furlough and the Er Kagi wanted very much the fine 
setter which we had. She had, at the time, two small 
pups, which he placed in a basket and had them carried 
on a man’s back, so that it was not difficult for him to 
persuade her to follow. 

One of the visitors was Mr. Coles, the English Consul 
at Tachienlu, another Mr. Clements of the China In- 
land Mission, also Mr. Edgar who had formerly been in 
Batang in the China Inland Mission, Dr. Weigold of 
Berlin, Mr. and Mrs. Lewer and Miss Agar of the Pente- 
costal Union in Yunnan, Mr. Teiehman, the successor to 
Mr. Coles in Tachienlu, as well as two or three French 
priests from the south. 

There was always considerable difficulty at these times 
among the ladies as to who should have the honour of 
entertaining these visitors and, while the list seems quite 
extensive, yet when spread out over ten or twelve years 
there are not a great many. 


VISITORS 113 


There also lived in Tachienlu, Do Tusi, the former 
Prince of Derge who had been deposed and confined as a 
prisoner at Batang by the Chinese. He was treated very 
well and was given as a place of residence the home of 
the former Prince of Batang. He and his wife were 
frequent visitors in our home. He was at last allowed 
to return to Derge but on the capture of that place by 
the Tibetans, he was made a prisoner by them on the 
grounds that he had formerly helped the Chinese and 
was taken to Lassa, so that he is in disfavour both with 
the Chinese and the Tibetans. He was formerly very 
wealthy, as Derge was considered by the inhabitants of 
that Province to occupy most of the earth’s surface 
under heaven. 

The only remaining representative of the family of 
the second Prince of Batang is Gwa Tsen Gi, a young 
man not more than twenty years of age. He, with his 
family, consisting of father, mother, sister, and himself, 
had been transported to Chentu, the capital, where all but 
he had succumbed. He was finally allowed to return to 
Batang, but he had become so debauched and addicted 
to opium that he was not a man of much force of 
character. It was the effort of his friends to rehabilitate 
him and they came to me and asked me if I would make 
the effort to break him of smoking opium. I took him 
into the hospital and finally into my own home, where 
he stayed for more than a year. I succeeded in breaking 
him of the opium habit and he became quite influential. 
His family connections are of the very best. His mother 
was a member of the famous Hla Ja Ri family in Lassa. 
It is with great regret that I hear that he has again re- 
verted to opium smoking and does not dare return to 
Batang for fear that he will be executed by the present 
Chinese officials. 


XX 
VISITING THE BAD LANDS 


NE time I determined to make a visit to the 
() Bad Lands lying to the west of the Yangtze 

River and to the northwest of Batang. In 
order to get over into these lands it was necessary to go 
down the river a half day’s journey and there cross in 
the Chinese boats. 

Accordingly, all things having been prepared, in com- 
pany with my teacher and my mule man, Andru, we set 
out, and crossing the river at Leh, we went directly up 
the mountain to stop for the first night at Shi Song Gong, 
a small village lying about two thousand feet above the 
Yangtze valley. Going on the next day we crossed one 
of the high passes into the grass lands and were among 
the nomads, where we also found herds of yak and sheep. 

We had been joined at Shi Song Gong by a man of our 
acquaintanee, who was taking advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to accompany us over the Bad Lands on a hunt 
for some horses of his which had been stolen by the 
robbers. 

These Bad Lands had been the home of robber bands 
from time immemorial. This man was decked out in all 
the finery of a Tibetan, having his long gun from the 
stock of which protruded the two horns that make the 
rest for the gun, a sword and charm box. These charm 
boxes are made of silver or nickel and contain a small 
additional piece of Lama’s clothes, ceremonial scarfs, 
different kinds of medicine and charms, and are supposed 

114 


VISITING THE BAD LANDS 115 


to protect the wearer from injury in any encounter that 
he may have. 

On the second day out I asked the man what he was 
wearing that thing for and he replied, ‘‘ You don’t seem 
to know where we are going.’’ I said, ‘‘ Yes, I know 
where we are going all right, but that thing isn’t going 
to do you any good.’’ ‘‘ Oh, yes, it will,’’ he replied. 
‘‘T have been shot at seven times and have never been 
hurt yet. The bullets can’t go in. They will some- 
times penetrate my clothes or make a black and blue 
spot on my skin but they never go in.”’ ‘‘Is that so?’’ 
IT asked. ‘‘What did that box cost?’’ He replied that 
they were very expensive, that one costing about one 
hundred and fifty rupees. So I said to the man, ‘‘ Well, 
I’d like to have one if it will work, but I have never 
yet seen one that would work.’’ He assured me that 
this one worked all right and I asked him if he would 
sell it to me, but I insisted that I should first try it to 
see whether or not it would work. 

I said to him, ‘‘You stand out there and let me shoot 
at you once and if I can’t hit you, you name your own 
price, because if the thing works it is worth any amount. 
of money.’’ Well, he didn’t just know about that and 
rather demurred at my trying it on him. I said, ‘‘ You 
needn’t be afraid because Ill not shoot to kill you, but 
will only shoot you in the leg, and if I should happen 
to hit you I’ll doctor you till you get well and do it 
free of charge.’’ 

He refused, however, to have the thing tried on him, 
but we finally came to an agreement that it should be 
tried on a goat. The bargain was that if I could not hit 
the goat he was to have his pick of my guns, which were 
three: two high power rifles and a repeating shotgun. 

My teacher very excitedly called me off to one side and 


116 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


said, ‘‘Why did you ever make such an agreement as 
that? He is going to take your very best gun. You 
needn’t think he doesn’t know which the best is, for he 
does, and he will take the best one you have.’’ ‘‘ Well,’’ 
I said, ‘‘ perhaps he won’t get it.’’ ‘‘Of course he’ll get 
it, and it is a shame, because you’ll never be able to get 
another one like it.’’ I told him that now it was too late 
to be helped because the bargain was made, so I went up 
to one of the nomad tents and for two rupees succeeded 
in purchasing a goat, on which we tied the charm box. 

I asked him now which gun I should use. He said, 
‘‘You can’t use that one,’’ designating one of the rifles, 
‘*for that has nickel on the bullets, and this thing may 
not work against nickel. Let me see the ammuni- 
tion for the other rifle.’’ I showed it tohim, ‘That, too, 
was metal, so he declined to have me use that. Finally 
he said, ‘‘ Use that one, as that shoots nothing but lead,’’ 
and he designated the shotgun. 

Well, it was only about ten seconds before he was 
gathering up the remains, for I had smashed the charm 
box as well as killed the goat. He was the most discon- 
solate man I had ever seen. He sat fingering over the 
different pills, pieces of cloth, ete., that had been con- 
tained in the charm box, the very picture of despair. 

This story preceded us during all the journey of more 
than two weeks in these Bad Lands, but it was not until 
our return to Batang that anything further came of it. 

One day Adam, one of my old friends in whose house 
one of the missionaries had once lived, came to me and 
asked if the story were true. I replied that it was true 
and still held. I had raised my offer to two thousand 
rupees for one of these charm boxes that would work. 
He asked me if I had that.-much money. As a matter 
of fact, I did not have, but I told him that I could secure 


VISITING THE BAD LANDS 117 


it all right, that I would sell my mule and my guns to 
secure it, because if one of these charm boxes could be 
found that would work, it would be priceless. 

The trial was to be, as formerly, with a goat. But he 
stipulated that the trial should be held secretly, as there 
were some of his friends who were opposed to it, but he 
said that I had just as well begin to get the money ready 
because there was no chance of my hitting the goat with 
his charm box tied on him, and he proceeded to tell me 
the story of its wonderful power of protection. 

To make doubly sure, however, on the morning of the 
trial he had gone to the high priest at Batang and had a 
ceremonial scarf especially blessed and breathed upon by 
this priest. Not satisfied with this, he had also gone to 
another big priest far up on the mountain and had him 
prepare one. These two scarfs, together with his charm 
box, were tied on the goat, and he felt sure that it would 
be utterly impossible for me to hit the goat with these 
two searfs on it. 

He brought four or five of his friends, and I took as 
many of mine for the trial. He had told me that I could 
not use my guns but would have to use his. His gun 
was one of the old eleven millimeter mausers. I replied, 
‘*All right, I have ammunition that will fit your gun.”’ 
**Oh,’’ he said, ‘‘but you can’t use your ammunition.”’ 
I asked why. ‘‘Well,’’ he said, ‘‘you do some sort of 
‘hokus pokus’ over that ammunition that may make this 
charm box uneffective, so you will have to use my ammu- 
nition as well as my gun.’’ 

I finally stipulated that he should bring plenty of am- 
munition, as I did not want them to play any tricks on 
me by removing the powder from the shells. 

This was not attempted, however, and when all was 
ready I asked for the gun to examine it. He readily 


118 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


passed it over. It appeared to be all right. I then 
asked for the ammunition. I put it in a shell and tried 
it on a small stone. I shot three or four inches high. 
Making an allowance for this, the next time it shot all 
right. 

Everything was now ready and I asked them to place 
the goat. ‘‘Wait a minute,’’ he said, ‘‘I want to have 
this bargain clearly understood.’’ He ealled his friends 
up and asked me to repeat the bargain we had made so 
that all might hear, but I insisted that he repeat it. He 
said, ‘‘As I understand it, if you fail to kill the goat I 
am to get two thousand rupees.’’ ‘‘That is right,’’ I 
replied. The goat had no more chance than had the for- 
mer one, and when the man was sorrowfully removing 
his charm box he was very discouraged and much be- 
puzzled, His friends began to chaff him and make fun 
of him. I said to them, ‘‘None of that, please, for this 
is a very serious matter,’’ and going up to him I put my 
arm around his shoulder and said to him, ‘‘ Adam, it is 
not with any intention of making fun of you or of ridi- 
euling your religion, for a man’s religion, no matter 
what it is, is to him the most sacred thing in the world. 
But you have some things in yours that are false, and 
you ought to get rid of them. These charm boxes are 
one of the false things.’’ 

He could not see it that way, but returning to the 
high priest, asked for an explanation of how it had hap- 
pened when he had been assured that there was no 
chance whatever of failure. 

Now it seems to be an impossibility to corner these 
priests. They always have an explanation, and here was 
his. He said, ‘‘The reason you failed is this; Ju Lama 
has got married.”? Ju Lama was one of the other big 
priests in Batang formerly mentioned. The priest con- 


VISITING THE BAD LANDS 119 


tinued, ‘‘Priests are not allowed to get married, and be- 
cause Ju Lama got married our god is displeased with 
us. The Christians’ God has him kadaoed (cowed) and 
has the upper hand, and it will be no use to have any 
more such trials while the priests continue to sin as they 
do, for our god will not help.’’ 

The journey into the Bad Lands was one of much in- 
terest, it being into a country where no white man had 
formerly gone. The people in some instances were very 
much afraid, but taken all in all were very hospitable 
and very kind. 

We passed one day the shrine at which the robbers all 
would stop to worship when starting out on an expedi- 
tion. This was a very high cliff at the foot of which in- 
cense was burned and prayers offered for the success of 
the party. 

The road led up the Yangtze River, which there lies in 
a deep gorge with many valleys running in from the 
side, so that our progress in a lateral direction was very 
slow, being mostly up one hill and down another. 

In some places the people, in transporting our goods, 
would not bring animals at all and when asked why, they 
said, ‘‘It is better to carry the goods because our yak or 
horses might fall over the cliff and be lost.’’ 

At one place where the party that had been transport- 
ing our goods had stopped, I was considerably astonished 
to see that the women were making their beds for the 
night out in the yard. The house was large, and there 
was no reason, so far as I could see, why they should not 
go into the house. On asking the reason I was informed 
that in this village it was the custom that, when a bride 
came into a house, no other woman was, in any circum- 
stances, ever allowed to enter. As a consequence, when 
the women of the village wanted to visit, it was necessary 


120 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


for them to assemble in some yard, as they were never 
permitted to enter each other’s homes. 

Polyandry, or multiple husbands, while by no means 
universal, is quite common in that district. The brothers 
of a family, sometimes as many as half a dozen, take one 
common wife. The wife occupies quite a respectable 
position in the home as compared with that occupied by 
women in some Oriental countries and, contrary to what 
might be expected, there is very little jealousy or strife 
among the husbands. 

While travelling one day I was asked to stop to see a 
sick man who happened to be the elder of two brothers. 
They had one wife, and when I examined the man he was 
very ill and I told them that I could do nothing for him. 
The grief of the common wife and the other husband was 
very genuine. The elder brother in this relation is con- 
sidered by the children as the father. The others are 
ealled uncles. 

On arriving at the seat of government for this district, 
there was a Chinese official who was quite held in and 
surrounded by Tibetans. I was very courteously enter- 
tained, and stopped for a few days to doctor the numer- 
ous sick that came from the different villages. 

On leaving, it was necessary to recross the Yangtze 
River, as we were going back into Batang from the 
north. The Yangtze there is a very turbulent stream 
and the only means of crossing is by coracles or skin 
boats. All animals must swim. The skin boats at this 
place are quite large, as they must be paddled by six 
men, for the water is very swift and it is necessary to get 
across as quickly as possible to avoid going down into the 
rapids below. The boats at this place seemed to be in a 
very bad state of repair, and it was a seary sight watch- 
ing the crossing. Only very little luggage and two or 


VISITING THE BAD LANDS 121 


three men could be taken into the boat in addition to the 
six paddlers. By way of precaution we stripped and, 
getting in, tried to place our luggage so that it could be 
kept as dry as possible. 

Water began coming in through holes in the bottom of 
the boat. My teacher was considerably excited and 
would put first one heel and then another over the holes 
where the water was spouting up. My poor old mule 
was led up on a steep bank just above the edge of the 
river and three men gave him a sudden push and in he 
fell. The end of the halter rope was held by one of the 
men in the boat. He went entirely under and when he 
came up let out a bray as if he thought his time had 
come. When we landed on the further shore it was nec- 
essary for them to go back and get Gway Gwang, our 
evangelist, who was to come the next trip. 

We were not exceedingly wet, but he was not so fortu- 
nate. His clothing, tracts and papers and Bibles were 
all soaked and it was necessary to stop for more than an 
hour and rearrange things before we could proceed. 

Some of the scenery in going up into the mountains 
again on this side of the river was very fine. <A natural 
bridge, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet high, was 
one item in it. 

While returning, we saw two large wolves across the 
valley, and getting down from my mule and taking care- 
ful aim, I succeeded in killing one. The exclamation let 
out by one of the escorts at that time I had never heard 
before nor have I heard it since. It was this: ‘‘ Well, 
it’s no use. Whenever he draws down on anything 
with that gun, the horse is in the barn.’’ 

One of the things especially appreciated by the women 
on this trip were the small looking-glasses sent out as an 
advertisement by the Horlick’s Malted Milk people. 


122 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


I would give one to the hostess or perhaps to some 
woman who was in the party, and word of this would 
precede me always, and I would be very shyly asked dur- 
ing the next day for more by the women of the place into 
which we had come. 


XXI 
UNREST 


( ; ONDITIONS in Eastern Tibet now became very 
much strained. Chinese and Tibetans were at 
war again after a period of comparative quiet. 

This was due to different causes, depending upon the 

persons by whom they were set forth. If it was the 

Chinamen, the Tibetans; if it was the Tibetans, the Chi- 

nese were to blame. It became impossible for Chinese 

to travel in the country at all unless in sufficient numbers 
and well enough armed to protect themselves. 

On many of my journeys I saw the graves in ones and 
twos along the road where at different times runners had 
been waylaid and slain for the sake of the gun and am- 
munition that they carried. 

If a Chinaman wanted to travel in safety his best plan 
was to don just as few clothes as possible, carry nothing 
of value whatever, and walk. Otherwise he was liable 
to be killed even for the sake of the few clothes. 

Not only was there war by the Chinese and Tibetans, 
but the Tibetans were often at war among themselves, 
one district fighting another. Reports were constantly 
coming into Batang, and merchants coming said that 
they had been attacked by robbers and asked protection. 

In the effort to pacify the country the officials took 
the attitude that they should act in a conciliatory way 
toward the robbers. It thus came about that in negotiat- 
ing with them, they would be given not only good terms 

123 


124 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


but considerable presents, in the effort to get them to 
behave themselves. This tended to enrage the law-abid- 
ing people, who were taxed unmercifully for the support 
of the army. They reasoned that it would be far better 
for themselves to turn robbers, as they would be able 
thus to obtain better conditions than they, as law-abiding 
citizens, could. 

Everything that was done only seemed to increase the 
turbulence and violence all over the country. Human 
life was worth nothing at all, nor were the rights of 
property in any way respected. Advantage was taken 
of this condition by many of those having private 
grudges to wreak vengeance on those whom it was their 
desire to injure. The great and outstanding incentive 
to robbery was arms and ammunition, and the robbers 
became so bold that at one time they would attack the 
garrisons of the small forts surrounding Batang at night, 
and on two different occasions killed some of the men 
and succeeded in getting away with a few guns. 

One of the chieftains who had been perhaps more law- 
less than any of the others was apparently pacified and 
was brought into Batang as a guest, where he spent his 
days and nights going from one ‘place to another drink- 
ing and gambling. He was so much feared by the peo- 
ple that he was treated with extreme respect and all 
kindness. 

This condition of affairs is only a part of the great un- 
rest that seems at this time to be spreading over not only 
all Asia, but also over the whole world. Murmurings 
are heard on every side. Even the Tibetans themselves, 
when they have been freed from Chinese rule, complain 
very bitterly at the exactions of their own officials. This 
cannot be done openly for fear of instant punishment, 
but in talking with any one whom they consider a friend 


UNREST 125 


and who will not betray their confidence, this bitterness 
crops out at all times. 

It was constantly being reported in Batang that fresh 
troops were being sent from down in China and great 
were the promises of punishment for the Tibetans when 
these troops should arrive. They have, however, even 
in two or three years, failed to materialize. Now when 
any one speaks of new troops coming he is laughed at 
and told that perhaps they will come sometime during 
the next generation. 

Smallpox had come again with its great toll of death 
and suffering. The people of Batang and surrounding 
communities had become during the year more and more 
convinced of the efficacy of vaccination and it was not so 
difficult this time to persuade them. My assistants and 
myself were kept busy making vaccine and sending more 
out to the different surrounding villages in answer to 
calls that were constantly coming in. 

There is an unwritten law in the villages that if any 
one is to be vaccinated, all must be vaccinated. Should 
any one take it into his head to be vaccinated or to have 
his family vaccinated before the others had given their 
consent and agreed also to be vaccinated, he would get 
into serious trouble. 

Many were urged by the priests upon casting lots that 
it would be best for them not to be vaccinated. In 
Batang there were thus two classes—those who were, and 
those who were not vaccinated. Gezong Ongdu, my 
teacher, summed up the results very accurately one day 
when he said, ‘‘ Well, it’s no question any more about 
vaccination. Those who east lots are dead; those who 
are vaccinated are still alive.”’ 

Gezong Ongdu has become an expert with Mrs. Shelton 
in the last few years in translation work. She has pre- 


126 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


pared, with his help, a song-book of some one hundred 
and fifty of the best hymns of the church, with music, and 
twenty kindergarten songs. Also a book of thirty-two of 
the best stories for use in the schools, and what is perhaps 
as greatly needed in a general way, a combined geog- 
raphy and astronomy showing the relations of the earth 
and the heavenly bodies. These are now ready for pub- 
lication and are greatly needed in the church and school 
work; also a translation of Esther. 

A peculiar sadness comes over the little community, 
isolated far in the interior, when one of the number is 
called to pass on. Little Bobby Baker was laid to rest 
with his little sister, little Jimmie Ogden and Dr. Loftis, 
in our little God’s Acre in Batang. 


XXIT 
WAR NEGOTIATIONS 


r “HINGS were getting desperate. One afternoon 
the Commanding General asked me to come to 
his place as he wished to see me. When I went 

he warned me that the Tibetans were making constant 

inroads on the Chinese, that the garrison at Chamdo was 
completely surrounded and cut off, that Draya had 
fallen, and that Jangka had been taken by the Governor 
of Lower Kham. It was reported that he would be 
down to take Batang within a few days, so that he, the 

General, could no longer protect us, as he had neither 

the men nor the arms nor provisions with which to offer 

any great resistance. He further said that he thought 
it would be better for us to leave at once, and asked what 
we were going to do. 

After discussing the matter we, as a Mission, decided 
that we would stay. He seemed to be considerably sur- 
prised that we were going to stay, and our decision had 
the effect of calming the somewhat hysterical feeling 
that was getting to be prevalent among the people. 

‘“Well,’’ he said, ‘‘if you’re going to stay, would you 
mind going over to see if some arrangements can be 
made by which an armistice can be arranged until the 
Chinese-Tibetan affairs can be finally settled by means 
of negotiation?’’ I replied that I would be glad to do 
all I could, and two days later, in company with my 
teacher and the two headmen of the place, we started 
out. 

127 


128 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


We were besieged on every hand and asked to please 
do our best to keep war from coming to Batang. After 
reaching the border, some three days from Batang, we 
established ourselves in an old house and wrote letters 
across to the Governor asking if we might come. 

There were stationed in this village a small garrison of 
some twenty-five soldiers, who were very greatly alarmed 
at the news that was constantly filtering through and 
were fearful that any night they, too, might be taken. 
They asked us to procure a man and send him across to 
find out the actual state of affairs, and whether or not 
Jangka had fallen into the hands of the Tibetan Gov- 
ernor. 

This was done, and one night about midnight he re- 
turned saying that it was all true, that the Chinese who 
had been killed were many, that many more had been 
taken prisoners, and that a band of Tibetan soldiers had 
been that day at the top of the pass and were momenta- 
rily expected. 

I reported this to the Captain in charge, who became 
panic-stricken and asked that I help in procuring ani- 
mals to take them two days nearer Batang and across 
the Yangtze River. I assisted as best I could, and ani- 
mals were promised to take them on in the morning. 

At three o’clock I was again awakened by two soldiers 
standing at my bedside and asking me to please get up 
and see what could be done, as no animals had arrived. 
I dressed and went out into the night with Gezong Ongdu 
and we did not go back to bed until an hour and a half 
later, but we had seen the women and children, wives of 
these soldiers, loaded on to yak, horses and mules, and all 
on the way in a very terrified frame of mind. 

The next afternoon word came from the Governor in 
a very curt letter in which he said that if we cared to 


WAR NEGOTIATIONS 129 


come out we could come. We were not greatly encour- 
aged by the tone of the letter, but made preparations to 
go on the following morning. However, at five o’clock 
the next morning a letter came by special runners from 
the General at Batang saying that there were other 
things to be considered and before going on would I 
please come back to Batang for further conference. 
Two mules were at once saddled and with one of the 
men who was with me, we started for Batang, three days 
distant. 

We travelled hard, with no stop but for a few minutes 
at noon for the mules to eat a bite of grain, and just as 
dark was coming on we reached Batang and spent the 
fore part of the night getting additional instructions, 
slept for two hours and started on the return journey 
and reached our post just as the sun went down. 

The following morning, everything having been ar- 
ranged, we proceeded on our journey and two days later 
were met on nearing Jangka by one of the headmen in 
the employ of the Government. He said that provision 
had been made for a place where we might stay, and, on 
entering the place, we found its streets absolutely 
crowded with a great horde of the unkempt and dirty 
nomads all dressed in the sheepskin clothes and all 
carrying the old firelocks of the country. 

It was a weird sight to see these hundreds of men all 
massed there before the Governor’s residence. In strik- 
ing contrast to this were the smart uniforms and arms 
of the soldiers from Lassa. 

We were escorted to our stopping-place and a short 
time later were informed that the Governor would see 
us. We went over and were received in a very frigid 
manner. He was, however, scrupulously polite tome. I 
had a chair and a place of honour at one end of the table, 


130 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


which he bade me take. He took the one at the other 
end and very unceremoniously told the priests that they 
could sit on the rugs on the floor at the other side of the 
room. ‘‘ Well, now,’’ he said, ‘‘for what have you 
come?’’ I told him that I had come at the instance of 
General Liu to see if there was not some way by which 
an armistice could be arranged until the Chinese-Tibetan 
affairs could be finally settled by diplomacy. I further- 
more told him that on our own behalf and from our 
point of view it was deplorable that any of our friends 
both on his side and also among the Chinese were being 
killed, and for the sake of humanity I would like very 
much if it could be arranged so that there need be no 
more fighting. 

‘“Well,’’ he said, ‘‘that can be arranged very easily.”’ 
I replied that I was exceedingly glad to hear it and 
asked what he would suggest. He replied that if Gen- 
eral Liu would simply surrender all his arms and ammu- 
nition that not one of his men would be killed and they 
would be given safe escort to Lassa. This was peace 
with a vengeance. I told him that that would be impos- 
sible, that General Liu would thus be endangering his 
own life by surrendering, and that furthermore I had no 
orders to negotiate on any such lines, but that I was there 
simply for the purpose of getting them together, at which 
time they could talk out their own terms. He replied 
that there was no other way. I said that I was very 
sorry but if that was all that could be done there was 
nothing more to be said, and I told him that if he would 
arrange for animals for us we would be going back in 
the morning. 

‘* Oh,’’ he said, ‘‘don’t be in a hurry; let’s talk some 
more about it.’’ The fact of the matter was that the 
Tibetans were just as anxious to negotiate as were the 


WAR NEGOTIATIONS 131 


Chinese. After an endless amount of talking, running 
far along toward midnight, he made this proposition, 
that I should put in writing what I had said and submit 
it to the Galon Lama, Commander-in-Chief of the Ti- 
betan forces then stationed at Hlotsong, one month’s 
journey to the west. That he would also write a letter 
and send it with mine and that he would abide by the 
decision of the Commander-in-Chief, whatever that might 
be, and that I should wait here for the answer to this 
letter. 

I asked if I were going to have to wait for two months 
until an answer came to these letters and he replied, 
‘‘Oh, no, the man will be back in twelve days, during 
which time I will make no move against Batang.’’ 

At three o’clock in the morning the letters were ready 
and the man started on his way with the instruction that 
he should be back in twelve days or it would go hard 
with him. He came in about midnight the night of the 
twelfth day. The answer was very gratifying, the Galon 
Lama saying that he was glad to know that I was inter- 
ested in seeing the fighting stopped and that now what- 
ever I should say would go. 

I explained to the Governor that I was in no posi- 
tion to say anything, that I was simply there in order 
to try to get the Tibetan and Chinese representatives to- 
gether and let them make their own terms. 

Time went on, and day after day General Liu prom- 
ised to come time after time, but from one cause or an- 
other he was hindered till it began to appear as if he was 
not going to come at all. At last, however, I wrote him 
a letter stating that it appeared that he was not coming 
and that should he not be there by a certain time, my 
companions and I would return to Batang. 

This had the desired effect and a few days later he ar- 


132 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


rived and was very graciously received with all honours 
by the Governor. 

During the time, almost two months, which I spent at 
Jangka, I was constantly kept busy doctoring. Soon 
after our arrival I had been to the country one morning 
seeing a wounded patient and coming back I saw quite 
a crowd of men in a little grove near by and heard a 
great volley of shots. I supposed that they were target 
shooting and wondered why all the shots should be at 
one time. A few minutes later I saw that it was nothing 
of the kind, but simply a firing squad of some thirty or 
forty men and, that there might be no mistake or chance 
of a miss, all were provided with ball cartridges. 

As a consequence, the victim looked like a pepper box, 
being hit in all parts of the body. A few minutes later 
the Governor was back in his place conducting further 
trials. In these trials, sentences and punishment were 
simultaneous. There was no stay of execution. 

He cut off three hands of men whom he considered to 
be traitors. The hand would simply be pulled out and 
with one slice of the sword severed at the wrist. Friends 
of the men who were on trial, knowing or suspecting that 
such punishment might be meted out, always provided 
themselves with a bowl of boiling butter in which the 
stump of the arm was at once plunged and cooked to 
stop the flow of the blood. 

I was kept busy all day caring for these people. First, 
however, I went to see the Governor and asked him if 
there were any objections on his part to my attending 
to them. He said, ‘‘ Not at all. When I get through 
with them you can do as you like.’’ 

During this long wait in Jangka there was another 
man who also was waiting. He was the head of one of 
the great robber bands and had come to the Governor 


WAR NEGOTIATIONS 133 


and asked that he be allowed to take Batang. I pro- 
tested to the Governor and told him that these people 
knew nothing of how to treat a place when captured, 
but would utterly destroy lives and property. The 
Governor told him to just keep his hands off, that 
when he got ready to take Batang he would take it him- 
self. 

This man used to come over to visit me during our 
long wait and I would go and visit him. After a time 
we came to be very good friends. So he said to me one 
day, ‘‘Why not let you and me be brothers?’’ They 
have the custom in that country that when men are very 
good friends, they sometimes write a paper pledging 
themselves to mutual help and aid through lfe and 
declaring themselves brothers. I replied that I couldn’t 
do that and he wanted to know why. ‘‘ Well,’’ said I, 
‘‘in the first place, you kill people, and you rob, and you 
drink whiskey and do a great many things that are 
against our religion.’’ I told him that we had come over 
here to do good, to help save life, instead of doing wrong 
and destroying. 

This made him a little angry; he didn’t like it very 
well and he went away. Some two or three days later 
he came back and said, ‘‘ Well, what will your religion 
allow you to do?’’ This gave me a good opportunity, so 
I gave him our conception of Christ’s teaching. Two 
or three days later he came back and this time he was 
all smiles. ‘‘Oh,’’ he said, ‘‘I’ve got it fixed now all 
right.’? J asked what had happened and he told me he 
had been up to the high priest that morning and had 
taken an oath that he would not kill, he would not rob, 
he would not drink whiskey, ete. I said, ‘‘ Well, that 
is fine—I am glad to hear it.’’ He questioned, ‘‘That’s 
all right, is it?’’ I told him of course it was. ‘‘ Well 


134 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


then,’’ he said, ‘‘how will this do?’’ He reached in his 
gown and pulled out a paper. He had our contract all 
written up. It ran somewhat in this fashion: ‘‘In view 
of the fact that General Lozong (he called himself a gen- 
eral) and Dr. Shelton have taken an oath that they will 
not kill, that they will not drink whiskey, ete., and they 
have decided to be brothers, ete.,’’ and toward the close 
he finished with this sentence: ‘‘Furthermore, this is to 
give notice that if any of you ever molest Dr. Shelton 
I’ll bring a thousand men to wipe you off the face of 
the earth.’? This was a pretty good passport in that 
country, and here is the sequel. A year and a half 
later, just before leaving Batang, I received a letter 
from Lozong, some six or seven days to the west, in 
which he said after inquiring for my health and that of 
my family, ‘‘This is to inform you that I am strictly 
keeping my oath of a year and a half ago.’’ 

The Governor and I had many friendly discussions 
during these two months on all matters, and at last we 
got to the place where we could disagree violently with 
no danger to either. At one time he asked me what 
were my intentions, what I wanted to do later. I re- 
plied that I would like to go to Lassa, build a hospital, 
take some fifty or sixty Tibetan young men from dif- 
ferent places over the country and teach them medi- 
cine for five or six years and let them go back to their 
own homes where they might be of great service to their 
fellows. He replied that that would suit him fine, but 
he said, ‘‘I am not in a position to agree that you can go 
because I am under the Dalai Lama and no one but 
the Dalai Lama can give you this permission.’’ I re- 
plied that I had been trying and trying to write him for 
several years but could find no one who would take the 
letter; every one seemed to be afraid. He said, ‘‘You 


WAR NEGOTIATIONS 135 


write the letter and I’ll see that it goes, and I will send 
it with my endorsement.’’ 

After much painstaking care with my teacher, the 
letter was ready and sent forward. Some four months 
later the reply came. It is, so far as I know, the only 
letter ever written by the Dalai Lama to a missionary. 
It runs somewhat after this fashion: ‘‘I know of your 
work and that you have come a long way to do good, 
and, so far as I am concerned, I will put no straw in 
your way, providing there are no foreign treaties to 
prevent your coming.’’ 


XXIII 
CHAMDO 


HE condition of the prisoners in Jangka was 
sometimes pitiable and sometimes, knowing 
the men as I did and their years of rascality 
and oppression of the Tibetans, was rather gratifying 
than otherwise; especially did the imprisonment of the 
former magistrate awake in me no sense of pity what- 
ever. He had oppressed and mistreated the people and 
stolen from them in a great way. His stealings had all 
been taken from him and now he was nothing but a 
baby and he acted like one. I could not, however, be 
sorry for him, though perhaps I ought. During the 
time that we were there he sueceeded in bribing one of 
the underlings to prevent his being sent to the interior. 
A part of this bribe was borrowed from one of the men 
who was with me. Later on, after his release, he abso- 
lutely denied having borrowed the bribe, which in- 
ereased my already low regard for him. 

On the arrival of the General from Batang I was 
anxious to get away at once, as I had been gone almost 
two months. Toward the last Mrs. Shelton had become 
quite concerned, fearing that I might not get home at 
all, and had begun to make it quite unpleasant for the 
General. The Governor insisted that I stay a day or 
two and assist him and the General in getting started on 
their negotiations, and a further armistice of two months 
was agreed upon. 

Before this was passed Mr. Eric Teichman, the Brit- 

136 


CHAMDO 137 


ish Consul at Tachienlu, had been sent up to act as 
mediator, and a further armistice of one year was ar- 
ranged, during which time it was hoped that they might 
be able to settle amicably all differences and fix perma- 
nently the status of the Tibetan people. 

The year has passed and gone. The armistice has been 
extended because of the unsettled state of the country 
and the lack of any central power with authority in 
China. No permanent arrangement can be made until 
there is such a settled power in Peking. After a day of 
visiting with the Governor and the General, we started 
on our return trip to Batang, where we arrived without 
further incident. We were met by the local official 
and many of the people, who considered that we had 
been instrumental in saving Batang from destruction. 

I had been home but a few days when I received a 
letter from Mr. Teichman from Chamdo, stating that 
he was writing in behalf of the Galon Lama, who asked 
that I come up at once in order to care for the wounded 
in the recent fight. 

Preparations were quickly made and with Mr. Bu as 
my assistant and with the son of the former Prince of 
Batang, who was now living with us, we started off. 

Three days later we met Mr. Teichman, who was re- 
turning temporarily to Batang on his way to the town 
of Adensi, to await further instructions. I had a great 
caravan, as the Galon Lama and the Governor had both 
acceded to our request in allowing many non-combatants 
to accompany me out of the country. 

Mr. Teichman informed me of the present state of 
negotiations and said that he hoped that arrangements 
could be made for a permanent peace. 

Arriving at Jangka, we were very graciously and 
kindly received and implored to stay over for a few 


138 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


days to visit, which was impossible. It was very grati- 
fying, however, to find that the Governor and Gwatsengi, 
son of the former Prince of Batang, were related by fam- 
ily ties. The Governor thanked me for what I had been 
able to do for Gwatsengi and asked me to continue my 
care of him. 

At the feast, which is the invariable accompaniment 
of any good time in the Orient, there were with the 
Governor two of his lieutenants, one of whom had not 
formerly been to a feast served in Chinese fashion and 
who was unacquainted with several of the dishes and 
also with the etiquette. 

The fashion at a Chinese feast is to have watermelon 
seeds passed around, a small pile placed at the side of 
each plate. These are used to pass the time. You 
crack them with the teeth and eat the kernel. 

The General was an expert at this. He would some- 
times toss as many as five or six watermelon seeds in 
his mouth at one time, skilfully cracking them one by 
one with his teeth, removing the kernel and blowing the 
hulls from his lips. The lieutenant, seeing the General 
thus engaged, decided that he too would eat watermelon 
seeds, and proceeded to throw some into his mouth. He 
heard the crack of the seeds but did not know that the 
kernel was removed and the hull thrown away, so he pro- 
ceeded to masticate the hull and all. 

The next day we were on our way with one man sent 
by the Governor who acted as advance agent, going on 
ahead every day, securing lodgings and preparing for 
our comfort. It was the only time for years that I 
had been permitted to travel unaccompanied by an 
escort. 

Ju Lama, who had been with me during the negotia- 
tions in Jangka and had been retained by the General 





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CHAMDO 139 


on his arrival, asked and received permission to accom- 
pany me on the journey to Chamdo. 

After a stop of one night at Draya, where I had been 
some years before to care for the wounded and had seen 
the results of the ruthless treatment of Tibetans by the 
Chinese, we went on and on and the tenth day from 
Batang got into Chamdo. 

Here we were met some two miles from the town by a 
Captain sent out by the Galon Lama to receive us. As 
we got nearer the town we were met by many other 
folk, among them the prisoners. They were not confined 
in buildings and were allowed to roam around at will 
except that they were not allowed to cross the bridge on 
the road leading toward China. 

A little farther on just as we were entering the town, 
there was lined up the most pitiable group that it had 
been my lot to see—the wounded prisoners. Such of 
them as were able to drag themselves out had come and 
lined themselves at the side of the road to show their 
respect. 

Soon after arriving, the Galon Lama sent word that 
he would be glad to see us at any time. We went over 
and were received in a very kind manner by the old 
man whom we found to be a man of considerable ability 
and great shrewdness. He also was glad to see Gwat- 
sengi, having been acquainted with his mother before 
her coming to Batang. He asked, now that we were 
here, what would be our plans, stating that he would 
do all in his power to further them. 

After outlining to him what would be needed the 
following morning when we expected to begin work, he 
called the Captain and asked me to repeat these things 
to him, which I did. It was enough to appall him be- 
cause it included the building of a stove, the securing of 


140 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


great iron kettles for heating water, the securing of 
tables and benches for operating, and many other things 
too numerous to mention. When I had finished the 
Galon Lama said to him, ‘‘See that everything is ready 
before daylight.’’ It was. 

We had been invited to dine with the Galon Lama and 
in the meantime I went on a tour of inspection to see 
the wounded who were housed in three different build- 
ings on beds of straw, rotten, stinking, not a wound less 
than two months old. It was one of the worst proposi- 
tions that I have ever had to undertake. We began with 
the worst and for ten days, beginning between seven and 
eight in the morning, I operated as long as I was able 
to stand up, being assisted by the three men who were 
with me. 

At the end of this time we were through with the 
operations with the exception of two. There were two 
that were hopeless. Their friends, however, insisted that 
they should be operated on. I finally consented to pre- 
sent the case to Galon Lama and abide by his decision. 
When told of the conditions he absolutely refused to let 
me touch the men, saying that so far everything had 
gone well and that, so far as he and I were concerned, 
we would know that it was all right if these men should 
die on the table, but there would be a great many others 
who would not know the circumstances, to whom it might 
appear otherwise, and he therefore forbade my op- 
erating. One of them died before I left and the other 
shortly after. 

It was the custom of the Galon Lama, during the time 
we were there, every day at about two o’clock when we 
were finishing the work, to send the Captain with his 
compliments, saying that dinner was ready whenever 
we were, and a good part of the afternoon, from two 


CHAMDO 141 


o’clock on, was spent at his place discussing the various 
problems that came up constantly and conditions all 
over the world. We also discussed religion and I found 
him a very tolerant Buddhist to whom you could talk 
freely and from whom you could expect courteous treat- 
ment. 

There were several things during this stay which were 
very gratifying. One was the humane treatment ac- 
corded to the Chinese prisoners, which was so contrary 
to the conditions that had formerly existed that it was 
very noticeable. The Galon Lama was very jealous of 
his reputation for justness and in some eases carried it 
somewhat too far. 

I found that very much of this changed attitude was 
due to the Younghusband expedition to Lassa in 1905. 
I met one captain who had been in the fight at Gyangtse. 
He said, ‘‘Do you know, those English soldiers, when 
they caught me, found that I had been very seriously 
wounded. I expected that I would be killed but I was 
not. They took me and put me on a bed and a man came 
and tended to my wounds. They took care of me until I 
was well and gave me good food, and not only that ; when 
I was well they let me go and also gave me a little money 
to go home on.’’ This was so in contrast to any treat- 
ment to which they had ever been subjected, that it made 
an indelible impression on the whole country. 

He also said that not only would the English not loot 
any of their monasteries, but that they paid for all sup- 
plies. The Galon Lama is trying to emulate the lessons 
learned at that time. 

When the time came to return, on the evening of the 
last day, and we were saying good-bye to the Galon 
Lama, he had brought out two large wine vases which 
are only made in Chamdo. These are made in a very 


142 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


beautiful shape, of pig iron, in which figures have been 
cut with a chisel, almost completely covering them, and 
in these notches thus made by the chisel are laid gold 
and silver wire which are then beaten in and the whole 
smoothed down, making a very beautiful pattern. 

These he presented to me together with three hundred 
rupees to help pay travelling expenses. He also gave to 
each of my assistants a parcel of money and expressed to 
us his very great appreciation of what we had done. 

On leaving I said to him, ‘‘ Well, there are many things 
upon which you and I have agreed and I want to make 
you a proposition.’’ He said, ‘‘ What is it?’’ ‘‘This,”’ 
said I, ‘‘that from this time forth you and I give the 
best effort of our lives for the good of our brother men.’’ 
He replied, ‘‘I can accept that with my whole heart.”’ 


XXIV 
OPIUM 


r “QHAT night there was practically no sleep, as 

people were coming all through the night. 

They had been here before wanting to go out 
with us. Some had secured permission and some had 
been refused. One man, whose wife we had known in 
Batang, and who was with him here in Chamdo, had 
been promised by one of the underlings that he could 
go. He had, however, been very injudicious in giving 
his presents and had not spread them around sufficiently. 
As a consequence, the next morning when it came time 
to go, he was detained. His wife was in despair but 
nothing could be done. 

The Captain who had been selected to supply all our 
needs while we were in Chamdo told me that he had 
one son who was in London studying military tacties. 
One of the officers here in the army is Mongol, who had 
been in several of the capitals of Europe, in Egypt, 
Mesopotamia, China, and Japan, and said that he hoped 
yet to go to America. 

I found two or three who could speak a little Eng- 
lish. Two of them had cameras and the Galon Lama 
had a phonograph. This latter, however, was formerly 
property of the Chinese General whom he had eaptured. 

On my return to Batang I found that General Liu and 
Mr. Teichman had just left for Chamdo in preparation 
for the negotiations. Some weeks later I received a 

143 


144 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


letter from Mr. Teichman in which he said that the 
Galon Lama had been very much humiliated and angered 
by a dispatch from Lassa in which he had been in- 
formed that he was accused of having taken me prisoner, 
and that inquiry had been made from Peking through 
the Indian Government to the Galon Lama, asking for a 
report on the same. 

I wrote to the Galon Lama in answer to this accusa- 
tion, stating that I had had the pleasure of being his 
guest for some days and that I had never, at any time, re- 
ceived more kind and courteous treatment than had been 
accorded me in that territory, and regretted very much 
that any such report should have gotten abroad when 
the fact of the matter was that just exactly the opposite 
was true. 

The Galon Lama was very much pleased to receive this 
letter, especially in view of the fact that he is very 
jealous of his reputation for kind and just treatment to 
every one. 

Christmas in Batang is a very happy time of the year. 
We make the most of all birthdays, Christmas, the 
Fourth of July, ete. This Christmas we arranged to 
feed the poor; that is, to give them one good meal, be- 
cause there are some people who, from one year’s end 
to another, never know what it is to have a sufficiency 
of good food. 

This year when we came to serve those who had come, 
there were seated in the sunshine (for it is warm in the 
middle of the day in front of the hospital), three hun- 
dred and eleven of the poor. They were given a good 
meal, all they could eat, good beef, several kinds of vege- 
tables, and a generous supply of tsamba which they 
might take home. 

Fifteen years ago when I adopted the two young boys 


OPIUM 145 


who had started out to be beggars, I had not dared 
hope for the present results. Gway Gwang had been 
through many years a constant trial and it was thought 
at times that I had made a mistake in adopting him, but 
he has developed, under the tutorage of Mr. Ogden, Mr. 
Baker and Mr. Macleod, into a really great preacher. 
During the last year he has been pastor of the church 
and under his guidance it has been doing wonderfully 
well. 

We were almost ready to leave now and there was a 
class of about forty who were ready to be baptized. 
Amongst these forty were my own two girls, Doris and 
Dorothy. I think it was perhaps the greatest day in my 
life when I saw this boy, who had once been almost a 
beggar, take my own two daughters down into the 
waters of baptism. He is very short; they are tall. 
Almost every one who was baptized was larger than he 
was. He did the work beautifully but in order that 
one or two might not be lost, Mr. Macleod assisted. It 
was a great day and things are going along as they never 
have before. 

The school has far outgrown its present quarters and 
a new building is required. 

Last spring there came to Batang, in the planting of 
opium, what appeared to us to be the greatest menace 
that had ever come our way. A company of men had 
decided that it would be a great thing if, instead of 
using money to buy opium in Yunnan, opium could be 
raised in Batang, and thus the money be left at home. 

It was done very quietly and I had no inkling of the 
matter until one day I saw a man planting something 
which appeared very strange to me. I asked him what 
he was doing. He said he was planting opium. I asked 
him if he did not know that this was against the law. 


146 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


‘“Well,’’ he said, ‘‘the official has given us permission 
to do it, and we’re doing it.’’ I asked if he had gongsi 
(official written permission). He said no, that they had 
been told that they didn’t need it. 

I went at once to the official and asked him if he had 
given these men permission to plant opium. He denied 
that he had, but he looked very suspicious. I asked that 
he use his influence to prevent the consummation of such 
a thing because it would mean ruin to many of the young 
men and boys in the community who, while opium was 
dear, would not be tempted to try it and thus get the 
habit; but should it become common in and around 
Batang and should it be obtainable in exchange for 
wheat and barley and other things, as it inevitably would 
be should it be raised there, it would become a great 
menace to all young men. 

He promised his assistance and I went away hoping 
that the thing would be finished in a few days. As time 
went on he appeared very reluctant to take any steps, 
but finally he was persuaded to issue a proclamation 
forbidding the planting of any more and ordering that 
that already planted should be torn up. Getting the 
opium torn up was long, hard work, as those who had 
planted it were very reluctant to destroy what already 
promised to be a profitable crop. 

But by dint of persuasion and talks most of it was 
destroyed, until there remained, so far as I was able to 
find out, but two fields, one the property of the banker 
and one the property of a merchant on the street. They 
were both very unwilling to tear up their fields of opium, 
and wanted to know if there was any way by which I 
could be persuaded to let it alone. I told them there 
was just one way, that was to hire some one who was 
interested to shoot me. They said, ‘‘No, no, no.’’ I 


OPIUM 147 


told them that under no conditions would I give up my 
opposition to this thing. Finally, seeing that it was im- 
possible to get it all up without radical measures, I went 
to the official and told him I was very sorry but I would 
have to report him to his superior for allowing opium 
to be grown in Batang, but that it couldn’t be helped 
and that although he and I were friends of many years’ 
standing I would have to do so because I could not con- 
sent to see the opium grown in the district without using 
every effort in my power to suppress it. I said to him, 
‘‘T have not been trying to persuade you to do some- 
thing that is not your duty but, on the other hand, have 
been trying to get you to do that which will be of in- 
calculable value to the people of your jurisdiction.’’ He 
pretended to be very angry at those who had not obeyed 
his command and destroyed the opium. Perhaps he was 
so. At least during the afternoon he sent men and had 
these two men put in chains and led down through the 
middle of the street in shame to the jail and their re. 
maining fields of opium destroyed. Thus was the last 
poppy pulled up. Batang is, for one year at least, 
saved from this curse. 

These men were let out in a few days and I rather 
think that I have made no permanent enemies by the 
course taken, though there was quite intense feeling at 
the time. I went to the men personally and expressed 
to them my regret that it had been impossible for the 
matter to be solved in any other way, as they were not 
inclined to heed the proclamations of the official. They 
said, whether true or not, that they didn’t blame me but 
if they ever got a chance they would get even with the 
official for at first having given his consent and later 
withdrawing it. 

Shortly before we were to leave for furlough the Gov- 


148 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


ernor, knowing that that was our intention, sent a man 
from Jangka carrying an invitation to the whole fam- 
ily to come and visit him before leaving. He was to 
escort us up. He had written several times previously 
concerning this matter. Mrs. Shelton felt that she could 
not go as she had still some of the translation work which 
must be finished, so Mr. MacLeod and the two girls and 
myself accepted. 

A five days’ journey on horseback brought us to his 
place. The girls were quite scared at first on seeing 
two hundred soldiers come out to meet us. We dis- 
mounted to walk through the lines drawn up on each 
side of the road and were quite surprised when, just 
entering the line, to hear the command given in English, 
to present arms. 

We had a fine time and made many good friends. The 
Governor and his wife, who had now joined him, were 
constant in their attentions and met us at the door of 
the place where we were to stay to show us to our quar- 
ters. A little later a man came over and asked me to 
please sit down in the door. I was somewhat puzzled 
but complied and there came some fifteen men bearing 
presents from the Governor. 

First, a man bringing about thirty or forty pounds of 
butter, another with twenty pounds of tea, two more 
bearing whole carcases of mutton, another with a quarter 
of beef, another with a keg of honey, another bearing a 
leopard, wolf, and fox skin, another with a box of rice, 
the next a bag of flour, the next a bag of tsamba, bags of 
barley for the mule, and so on. 

This puts one in a very embarrassing position. Mis- 
sionaries’ salaries are not on the scale that allow them 
to give presents in such profusion. It could not be re- 
fused, however, and we returned the compliment, which 


OPIUM 149 


was also repeated for Mr. Macleod, by taking the pic- 
tures of the Governor and his wife, his staff, in all sorts 
and kinds of conditions and sending him a set of the 
prints on our return to Batang. 

We spent a week there and had a great time as well 
as being able to be of service doctoring those who were 
sick. Every day we went for a visit, which lasted from 
about two o’clock in the afternoon, to hear the phono- 
graph and the bagpipes and to see the Governor’s wife 
dance, which she did for our amusement. 

The second or third day we were there Mr. MacLeod 
and I arose at a much earlier hour than those whom we 
were visiting and were playing a game of checkers while 
waiting for the other folks to get up. It got to a very 
critical point in the game when suddenly Mr. MacLeod 
exclaimed, ‘‘There’s the pipes.’’ I said, ‘‘What’s the 
matter? Come on, what are you going to do there?”’ 
He very unceremoniously closed the game and replied, 
“*T don’t care what you do; don’t you hear the pipes?’’ 
I said, ‘‘That is just some Chinaman playing the flute. 
Come on and finish the game.’’ He said, ‘‘You can’t 
fool me,’’ and out he went, and sure enough it was the 
pipes, the Governor having sent to Chamdo and brought 
down its piper for our amusement. 

The Tibetans have adopted the Scottish bagpipes as 
their national instrument for the military. This man 
could play ‘‘The Cock of the North,’’ ‘‘The Campbells 
are Coming,’’ and so on, with great skill. 

Mr. MacLeod also tried to play the pipes but the 
altitude being more than twelve thousand feet, he was 
unable to furnish enough wind and was forced to give 
it up. He was not to be outdone, however, so he per- 
suaded the Tibetan to do the blowing while he did the 
fingering and the music went merrily on. 


150 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


In one of his bursts of enthusiasm he said, ‘‘I’m blood 
kin to these people.’’ 

When it came time to leave the girls were the most re- 
luetant of all. They wanted to stay, and even after we 
returned to Batang were determined that we should 
make one more trip to Jangka before starting home. 

Having been born in this land and growing up with 
these people they understand them as we, who are 
grown up, never can; and Doris, at the age of fifteen, 
when she left, gave up a Sunday School class of about 
one hundred and twenty with very great reluctance. 


XXV 
GOOD-BYE 


P : SHE time was now definitely set for our de- 
parture and it was necessary that the Society 
should be wired and everything made ready 

far in advance to prevent disappointment when the time 

should come. Most of our things had been packed, that 
is, such as were to be brought home. Very little, if 
anything, that had originally come from America was 
to be taken home, but things which had been acquired 
during our stay in Batang that would be useful at home, 
and which were associated with our work amongst 

Tibetans, were to be brought. Our other belongings, 

such as cook-stoves, dishes, ete., were to be disposed of 

to the other missionaries. 

A great many of Mrs. Shelton’s pictures were used 
for decorating the men’s ward, which she furnished in 
memory of her father. Furniture also was put in the 
large room given over to the fifteen little orphans that 
have been taken in and constitute a part of Mrs. Ogden’s 
large family. 

People were constantly bringing presents of one sort 
or another, as is the Tibetan custom when friends are 
leaving, to show their good will. Many of the pres- 
ents were eatables so that we might be well fed before 
starting on the journey. 

Mrs. Shelton doesn’t like to say good-bye. As a con- 

151 


152 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


sequence, when she found out that she was to be escorted 
out of town by a great many people and that she would 
have to say good-bye to them, she decided to leave early 
in the morning in order to escape this trial. 

She spent the day previous to our departure going to 
the different homes and saying good-bye which, not be- 
ing considered by them as the real good-bye, was not so 
affecting. So on the night previous to our departure, 
all things having been made ready, our animals were 
brought over and fed at our place. Boxes were all 
brought out and loads made up so that when morning 
came there would be nothing to do except to place the 
loads on the animals and start. 

People, however, had found out that we were going 
to start at a very early hour so as to escape having to 
say good-bye. They were not to be outwitted, but for 
fear that we would get away too early, they went on 
down the road the night before and stayed all night at 
different places. As a consequence, they were waiting 
‘for us as we came along the next morning. Of course 
there were those who came to say good-bye before we 
left as well as those along the road. Consequently, we 
were saying good-bye for the next twenty miles, and 
some even going a day’s journey and returning the 
next day. 

We had breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Ogden before 
starting. Doris and Dorothy were loath to go, as they 
were waiting for some of their friends who were yet 
coming; so we rode off and left them on the side of the 
road with Andru, waiting till their friends should come 
and they would catch up with us later. 

There were with us several people who were leaving 
Batang, going to their homes down in China. Among 
these were Johnny, who had been my faithful assistant 


SGNdIaaA AIGHL JO ANOS HLIM SHHLOTO NVLAPIL NI AHLOWOd ANV SIXAOd 





et 








GOOD-BYE 153 


for more than fifteen years, and his wife. He has two 
fine boys and a girl, and is very anxious to give them 
the best education that it is possible for them to receive; 
so he is taking them to his home in Nanking to begin 
their education. 

The first few days of the journey were passed without 
incident save that for the first three the girls were 
constantly reminded by scenes and acquaintances along 
the road that this was the same road they had taken on 
their visit to Jangka. 

The mornings were getting quite cold now, especially 
as we had gone out of the Yangtze valley on to the 
Highlands, so that the third morning we were travelling 
through snow all morning and, being on the western 
slope of the mountain, were in shadow for some hours. 

It is the custom to start just as soon as daylight, so 
that the first six hours of the journey were very cold. 
The girls were riding mules, Mrs. Shelton was in the 
chair. They were well provided with warm wraps and 
sheepskin boots so that they did not greatly suffer from 
the cold. 

Some five or six days out we crossed over the highest 
pass on the road, which is about sixteen thousand feet. 
The ascent was exceedingly difficult, especially as the 
slope was covered with ice. The men and animals found 
great difficulty in keeping their foothold, and it was 
necessary many times for all those riding mules to dis- 
mount and walk or scramble over the worst places. 

This was to be a long, hard day and it was necessary, 
in order to find a good camping place, not only to cross 
the pass but to go far down on the other side below the 
timber line. We at last reached the summit and on the 
far side of the mountain the wind was very cold, so we 
hurried on as fast as possible, only stopping for dinner; 


154 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


then we were on again. There were no houses, so it was 
simply a question of choosing a suitable place for camp 
that night. 

The men had some misunderstanding among them- 
selves. As a consequence, those in front went far past 
the place where those behind had expected to camp; so 
when they came up with the chair and Mrs. Shelton, 
they found no camp where they had expected it, and it 
was getting late. Night came on; it got dark and Doris 
and Dorothy were with the people in front, as was I. 
Mrs. Shelton had not come; so I had to start back with 
matches to light the lantern with which we had provided 
ourselves for just such an emergency. 

At last we reached camp and this was perhaps the 
longest day of the whole journey. It is always far 
better to make camp early, and get supper over with 
and things arranged for the night before darkness 
comes on. 

To make matters worse, rain was falling, which was 
unusual at that time of year, and as this was the only 
place where we would have to camp out before reaching 
Adensi, we had not thought it worth while to bring a. 
tent. We were able to get along very well, however, by 
covering up with oil sheets, especially as the rain soon 
turned to snow. It was rather hard on some of the men 
who were not so well provided for and very hard on the 
animals. 

The next day we got into the lower country going down 
the valley. One of our mules went over the bank and 
turned over and over until at last the boxes being 
loosened, he was enabled to stop himself, and so was not 
seriously injured, but the boxes went merrily on toward 
the river, eight hundred feet below. Fortunately, the 
river was filled with stones at this place and the water 


GOOD-BYE 155 


was very low, so that the boxes were not carried away 
but lodged on the stones and were recovered, though 
one of them was badly smashed up. The things were 
somewhat soaked but not lost, and soaking is a thing on 
which you must always count and not feel bad when it 
occurs. We were very thankful that the things were not 
earried entirely away. 

The following day we arrived at Adensi and there the 
things were thoroughly dried. 

We had been on the road now nine days and we were 
to stop a day for washing clothes, cooking, ete. It was 
necessary also to change animals here. I had written 
one of my friends to ask his assistance in hiring animals 
for the further journey to Lichang, some fifteen days 
further on. 

We stopped with Mr. and Mrs. Lewer, who had visited 
usin Batang. We had there many friends whom we had 
formerly known in Batang, and were very busy paying 
and receiving calls. 

We had there the pleasure of meeting the families of 
two French merchants. Mr. Bu, my former assistant, 
who was now with General Lieu, also joined the party 
for the trip out. There are three roads leading from 
Adensi to Lichang, and, after some discussion, it was de- 
cided that we should take the middle one. Each road 
had its advantages and disadvantages. The great ad- 
vantage of the road we proposed to take was that it af- 
forded more ample pasture for the animals than did 
either of the others. While its disadvantage was that we 
should spend two full days in crossing one great moun- 
tain where there were no dwelling places, and we would 
be forced to camp at a very great altitude. We had, 
however, provided ourselves with a tent and from this 
time on to Lichang, I think we spent only one night in a 


156 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


house, preferring, even when there were stopping places, 
to camp out in the open, as the weather was for the most 
part fine. 

The first night out on this great mountain was, how- 
ever, anything but pleasant. The mercury went quite 
low and we were camping in the snow, and wood for 
camp fire was exceedingly scarce. 

Our chair carriers, who were old friends and acquaint- 
ances of Batang, had decided to go on with us from 
Adensi. They did most excellent work and being 
Tibetans, did not mind the cold nor altitude in the 
least, but were always cheerful and happy so long as we 
were in territory occupied by Tibetans. 

Afterward, however, on reaching purely Chinese ter- 
ritory, they were very unhappy. 

There was one mountain on this road that was ex- 
ceedingly difficult. It was considerably infested by 
robbers and the people in the valley, to prevent the 
driving off of stock, had felled a great many trees across 
the road in trying to block the road entirely, so that it 
was the most difficult piece of work on the whole jour- 
ney—the clearing of these two miles of road, blocked 
by fallen timber, the road quite steep, covered with snow 
and ice, the animals many times falling in the narrow 
path and having to be unloaded before they could rise 
from the slippery ice. The bumping of the mules’ 
noses as they would go down on their knees before we 
reached the top of the pass left a trail of blood in the 
snow. 

It was impossible for the chair to be carried through 
in ordinary position. Mrs. Shelton had to get out, and, 
assisted by two Tibetans, to walk as best she could. She 
said her nose would have been bleeding too, had it not 
been for the Tibetans holding her up, As it was, her 


GOOD-BYE 157 


knees were black and blue from falling before we reached 
the top. 

On reaching the top the whole caravan was completely 
exhausted. So we stopped as quickly as possible for 
dinner, and then started on down the mountain. This 
side was not covered with snow but the road was so 
washed out that it was almost as difficult for the chair, 
so Mrs. Shelton had to walk again. I finally stopped for 
her with a horse. She declared she would not ride. 
She could seareely walk at all, so what was to be done? 
One of the Tibetans solved the problem. He said to her, 
‘‘Well, if you won’t ride I’ll have to carry you.’’ He 
started for her, and she had a sudden change of heart 
and decided to ride. 

Arriving at Lichang, Mr. and Mrs, Klaver very kindly 
took us in for a day or two to rest, wash, cook, ete. It 
here became necessary to hire animals through the local 
magistrate, as no animals were allowed to go out except 
through his office. He was using all that he could pro- 
cure in the transporting of military supplies to the 
north. 

While there we also met many former patients, and 
literally hundreds of people came to be doctored. It was 
impossible to attend to them all. This place very badly 
needs a hospital and it is one of the greatest openings 
for medical work in Yunnan. 

Some people who had heard of our coming had come 
two or three days’ journey in order to be there as we 
went through, wanting operations. I was not able to do 
these at the time, but promised to stop on my way back 
and attend to as many as possible in a week or ten days. 

One woman came in one day bringing a great basket 
of oranges and two ducks and said she was bringing 
them in gratitude for my having cured her husband. I 


158 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


told her that I did not know who her husband was and 
she said, ‘‘ He is in the interior now and is not here, but 
he is the man who went to Tachienlu, following you to 
Batang, and was operated on just as soon as you arrived 
in Batang.’’ 

Five days after leaving Litang we reached Talifu, 
were met by Dr. and Mrs. Hardy and Molly and Billy 
and their caravan of supplies and provisions. They 
were on their way to Batang. We spent one day visit- 
ing and hearing the things of America. Dr. Hardy 
asked that I bring some of the supplies for the hospital 
which had not yet arrived in Yunnanfu when he left. 

Horses having been hired for the remaining twelve 
days of the overland journey, we again set out, little 
realizing that I would not complete that twelve days’ 
journey for over three months. 


XXVI 
CAPTURED BY ROBBERS 


‘ , Y & had been travelling some twelve days to- 
ward Yunnanfu when suddenly, one after- 
noon about two o’clock, somebody shouted, 
‘<There are the robbers.’’ One of the four soldiers that 
were with us jumped out in front of my mule, stuck 
his gun in the air and pulled the trigger. Bang! He 
jumped around behind my mule again, and away the 
four of them went just as fast as they could go. I 
turned around and looked and said, ‘‘I don’t see any 
robbers.’’ I made the mistake of looking in the direc- 
tion the soldiers were going. They said, ‘‘In there, in 
there; up there in front.’’ 

The shots had begun in earnest now, and it was no 
trouble to find where the robbers were. The chairs 
with Mrs. Shelton and Doris and Dorothy were perhaps 
fifty yards in front. I jumped off my mule and started 
running toward the chairs. Some of the people behind 
kept saying, ‘‘Come back, come back,’’ but I went on to 
the chairs. Mrs. Shelton and the girls had climbed out 
and laid down in a ditch on the side of the road to be 
out of line of the firing. 

One bullet smashed Mrs. Shelton’s thermos bottle, 
which was under the seat of the chair. However, no 
one was hurt. The robbers now began pouring down 
around us, quickly taking all things from our pockets 

159 


160 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


and chairs and saddle-bags. One man who had tried to 
make himself look as scary as possible by putting a big 
smear of black across his face, stuck a big pistol in my 
stomach. He looked so grotesque that I laughed. 
Within a few minutes they had all of which we were 
possessed. 

One of the leaders coming up then said to me, ‘‘We 
want you to go back up the road a way and see our Gen- 
eral.’’ I said, ‘‘ All right, where is he?’’ He said, ‘‘He 
is back up there a little way. You come along with 
me.’’ So off I started with him. Mrs. Shelton and the 
girls begged for me not to leave them alone. I told 
them just to keep quiet, that they would not be hurt, 
and that I was going up to sce the leader and would be 
back in a little while. 

I thought that the robbers wanted to know where the 
rest of our goods was and that, after possessing them- 
selves of all we had, I would be allowed to go. I started 
off therefore, but wus not to see my wife and children 
again for seventy-one days. 

Arriving at the top of the little pass over which we 
had just come I met Yangtienfu, the leader of the 
band. He had my shotgun, glasses, camera, ete., and 
he wanted to know how to work them. I started show- 
ing him but had not got very far before bullets began to 
fly from the valley below. The soldiers had given the 
alarm and the garrison of the village where we had taken 
dinner was coming out. The leader then quietly in- 
formed me that I was to be held for ransom. This was 
somewhat of a surprise as I had expected to be allowed 
to return to my family. 

He directed his men to escort me on up the mountain. 
They would wait there for the soldiers. I mounted 
my mule, which had been brought up by those who had 


CAPTURED BY ROBBERS 161 


been detained by the other members of the party. I 
was taken on in front so as to be out of danger. We 
went along the crest of the mountain. The soldiers 
were firing from below, the bandits from above, but the 
range was too great for any serious damage to be done 
on either side. 

A running fight lasting about three hours followed. 
Two soldiers were killed and one of the bandits wounded. 
During the afternoon we kept moving steadily on. It 
became necessary to cross a very deep ravine. We got 
down very well by slipping and sliding, but the ascent 
was exceedingly difficult. My mule had to be taken 
around and we went up almost on all fours. 

Toward sundown we had to stop to await Yangtienfu 
and the rest of the party. The firing had ceased and 
the battle was over. The rest of the robbers came up 
shortly, and I attended a wounded man. One of the men 
who got well in a few days insisted on paying me three 
dollars. We stopped there for an hour and a half and 
had supper. They boiled rice in pots, which were carried 
along for that purpose. While the few whose business it 
was to get supper were working, the rest of the party 
smoked opium. 

I was to learn later how great a part opium played in 
the lives of these people, as they depended more upon 
it during periods of strain than upon food. 

When all the animals which had been stolen were 
brought up, then began the opening of the loads and 
saddle-bags. Most of the things had been taken from 
my saddle-bags to start with. Yang, however, demanded 
to know what all had been in my saddle-bags, and every- 
thing was brought out for his inspection. 

As one load after another was opened, all the men 
standing around, each appropriated what he wanted. 


162 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


You must realize that in appropriating loot they had 
to be very careful, and sometimes things of great value 
were thrust aside as not wanted, simply because of the 
fact that every man had to carry his own belongings, 
and on forced marches even things of great value, when 
they weigh a few pounds, lose their attractiveness. 

At one time I saw one of the men who was complain- 
ing very bitterly because he had twenty ting of silver, 
each weighing ten ounces. He knew not what to do with 
it, and carried it all day and all night around his waist 
and felt it to be a tremendous burden. After supper 
had been eaten and the loot divided, we were off again. 

We went on for several hours, then turned sharply to 
the right and went down the mountain. It was very 
steep; there was no road. I could not understand how 
they were finding their way through the valley; how- 
ever, we soon came upon a trail. We followed this for 
only a short distance and stopped at a small village 
where they were expected. Every one crowded in the 
houses. 

I wanted to unsaddle my mule and give him a little 
rest, but Yang would not allow it. I was told that I 
could lie down on a mat beside a very tall man who was 
smoking opium, if I wanted to sleep. I was tired out 
and did want to sleep; I did lie down but I had no 
covering. The room was full of smoke from a smoulder- 
ing fire in the center, and was very uncomfortable. I 
had been lying down for perhaps five minutes when I 
felt something put into the pocket of my coat. I reached 
to see what was being done. The man lying next to me 
had had my small medicine case out, had taken several 
of the bottles, a small pair of scissors from it, and then 
returned it to my pocket. 

Yang had told the men at supper that they were not 


CAPTURED BY ROBBERS 163 


to molest my small personal belongings. He inquired 
very strictly as to how much money I had had on my 
person, which was very little, about ten or twelve dollars. 

As soon as it began to get light every one was roused 
again to be prepared to go on. It began raining almost 
immediately, and as there was a heavy fog they could 
not see very far, so they decided to stop for a time for 
fear that they might run into parties of soldiers unaware. 

It was cold and raining and there was no place you 
could warm yourself with any comfort. I took up my 
position in an old straw shed, protected from the wind. 

The men came to me and asked me to write letters 
immediately, which they would undertake to have de- 
livered, telling the Governor of the Province that he 
should not send soldiers to pursue, and that if he did I 
would probably pay the penalty. I refused to write 
these letters. While waiting there in the rain in this 
straw shed I thought that instead of writing these letters 
I would heed Mrs. Shelton’s injunction and start a 
diary. 

I usually start a diary every year or two and some- 
times keep it up for a week. In my saddle-bags were 
just three books, my New Testament which had been 
given me by Mr. McLean when I was home before, a 
copy of Service’s ‘‘Rhymes of a Red Cross Man,’’ sent 
me by Mr. Burnham, and a copy of Ian Maclaren’s 
**Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush.’’ It was on the blank 
pages and margins of this last that I kept my diary. 

The men said they were going to take me back when 
it quit raining. They also were at great pains to tell 
me to comfort my heart, that they had nothing against 
me, that they wanted to do me no harm in any way 
whatever. 

We went on all during the afternoon, As it was 


164 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


nearing dark we could see far out across a great basin 
in the mountains. As we were travelling along the cliff 
we heard far away the faint call of the bugle. I sup- 
posed there were soldiers not far away. We stopped 
where we were and a man was sent across the basin. 

Somewhat after dark the headman who had taker 
me to Yangtienfu again put in his appearance and said 
that I should be of good cheer as he had been down to 
see how Mrs. Shelton and the girls were, and he told me 
what I afterward found to be the truth, that they had 
gone on to the next village and were stopping there 
waiting forme. The men had tried to take Mrs. Shelton 
and the girls too. 

They had made the girls walk and this fellow had 
got into one of the chairs and with his pistol sticking 
into the back of one of the chairmen, had forced him to 
carry him up the side of the mountain, but it was im- 
possible to make progress this way, and after the sol- 
diers came out, they were very quickly forced to let 
them go, for which I was very thankful. 

After waiting till it was very dark we cautiously 
slipped down the side of the mountain into a quite con- 
siderable village. This village was very friendly and 
the headman of the village was a confederate of Yang- 
tienfu. We stopped there until near midnight and then 
were on again. 

On leaving this place the band went very cautiously, 
no one being allowed to speak above a whisper. The 
party had a number on first count of only seventy-one 
men. 

About two o’clock in the morning we crossed the main 
road. I recognized it as such by the fact that the tele- 
graph wires ran along it. I afterward learned, when 
passing this place in the daytime, that we were within 


CAPTURED BY ROBBERS 165 


one mile of Lao Yao Gwan, where Mrs. Shelton and the 
girls were waiting for me. Little did we realize that 
we were so close together. 

Going on till almost daylight we came to a village 
where most of the people were said to be Catholic con- 
verts. There we stopped for two hours, and shortly 
after daylight were on the move again. 

The band had promised that morning I should be 
taken on to the Catholic place, which they said was down 
the valley a few miles. When daylight came, however, 
instead of going on down the valley we turned back to 
the mountains, going up a very steep road. When I 
was convinced that we were turning back to the moun- 
tains, after we had travelled for a while (it was impos- 
sible to ride), I told them that they could go as they 
liked, but I was going no further. I had had no sleep, 
I was tired out, and they had done nothing but lie since 
I had been taken, and I was convinced that they had no 
intention of doing any of the things that they had said, 
so I stopped. We stopped there till almost night and 
they asked for one of my cards that they might take it 
down to the Catholic priest. About two o’clock in the 
afternoon they returned with the name, Paul Bailly, 
printed on a card, and a message written in French, 
which I was unable to decipher. The man who brought 
the card informed me that Father Bailly had gone to 
Lao Yao Gwan for the purpose of escorting Mrs. Shelton 
and the children on into the capital. 

I afterward learned that this was the truth. The 
debt of gratitude that I owe Father Bailly I shall never 
be able to repay. 

Near night we moved on a short distance and came to 
a very excellent temple hidden back in one of the gorges 
in the mountain. I learned later that this was only a 


166 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


short distance, not more than a mile and a half, from 
Mitsao, where Father Bailly was located. 

Word was also brought by the man who brought the 
eard that Father Bailly was to attempt to have my 
release effected and that word would be brought back 
within five days as to what the result would be. 


XXVII 
TRAVELLING WITH THE BAND 


‘ , Y E stopped all night at this temple and had a 

fine rest. There we were able to secure a 

fine hog, which was butchered. We were 

also able to secure vegetables and as a consequence we 

had two or three good meals. The next day all in the 

party, without exception, went into the temple and paid 

their respects to the different deities represented there. 

Later the priests were called up and given a very gener- 
ous donation of money. 

The rest of the day was spent in gambling and smok- 
ing opium. It is somewhere near this place evidently 
that they have at least a part of the opium stored, be- 
cause it was from there that two of the men went forth, 
and in a few hours returned with several hundred 
ounces. It was cut off in chunks and passed out to 
the men as they wanted it. They were all urged to 
take plenty because they might not be back for several 
days and might not have a chance to secure more on 
the road. 

As darkness came on, after a night and day of rest, 
preparations were made to continue the journey. We 
crossed the valley and went on and on through the 
mountains. It appears as if they knew intuitively where 
the roads were. We seemed to travel with equal facility 
whether in the darkness or in the light, and only once 
or twice in all the days that I was a captive, did I ever 
see them puzzled as to which way to turn, and then only 

167 


168 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


for a moment. Yang always took the lead. He not 
only took the lead, but, for the sake of peace and so that 
there would be no grumbling, he refused to ride, insist- 
ing that he eat the same food, as well as travel the same 
as his men. He was frequently the only one in the 
party who had no money on his person. 

After travelling half the night we stopped for an hour 
to rest and to give the men an opportunity to smoke 
opium. Then we were on again. One little fellow in 
the party greatly amused me. He was only about four- 
teen years old and he earried an old sling-shot pistol, cap 
and ball, about a twelve bore. He also carried the 
longest sword in the party. It was amusing to see the 
little fellow, when we were passing through a village, 
throw back his shoulders and march. He was the hero 
of the children of the villages and was considered by 
them to be the only original Jesse James. 

In a day or two I began to get acquainted. One of 
the men had been especially courteous. He was a cap- 
tain, was low voiced, his name was Gnan. The lieu- 
tenant under him was equally nice. In speaking to 
Yangtienfu about some of the men, I mentioned this 
man as being very nice. He was at once made my body- 
guard with twelve other men. 

Riding along a crest of the mountain we could see 
down into the valley and could see Lao Yao Gwan near 
where I had been taken. We were going now, so Yang 
informed me, some days’ journey to the west in order 
to get a donation of money that had been given them by 
a man in the place. 

That afternoon we met a great string of people on 
their way to Lao Yao Gwan, for the following day was 
market day. They were carrying all sorts of things. 
Whatever was wanted the men took. It made me espe- 


TRAVELLING WITH THE BAND 169 


cially furious when the men robbed several small boys 
who were carrying great loads of sugar-cane to market. 
They very kindly offered me some but I was too mad. 
I told them that I didn’t eat stuff stolen from children. 

Arriving about dark in the largest town which we had 
yet passed through, at the muzzles of guns the head- 
men of the town were forced to do their bidding in pro- 
viding what was wanted and finding places for the men 
to get their supper. The people of this town were not 
at all friendly to them and it looked occasionally as if 
there might be violence. However, no one, so far as I 
know, was shot there. We stayed only two hours be- 
cause it was feared that some one had slipped out of 
town and gone to call the soldiers, so we were on again 
through the night over the worst and most dangerous 
road we had yet come. 

One mule went over the cliff. I could not see, I could 
only sit on my mule and let him go. He was being led 
by one of the men. About two o’clock in the morning 
we came to the bank of a river which it seemed neces- 
sary to ford. They could not do this in the night and 
it was necessary to wait for dawn. 

We stopped in a wheat field, the men shivering. 
There was no suitable place for camp. Nothing could 
be done. A little wood was found to make a fire but 
it was entirely inadequate. Some of the boys found 
some rice straw on the side of the hill, and I stole some 
along with the rest. I took a few bundles and laid them 
in the field and lay down on them. I took a few other 
bundles and threw them over myself to get warm if 
possible. It was no use, for not long after some man, 
thinking that he needed the straw worse than I did, un- 
ceremoniously took it and walked away with it. 

It was about this time that Yangtienfu and I had a 


170 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


long talk. He had demanded several things for my re- 
lease. Some were important, some were not. One of 
the things he demanded was that his wife and mother 
and son, who were held by the Governor in Yunnanfu, 
should be released. The most important thing to his 
way of thinking, however, was not that, but that he be 
given a ransom of about fifty thousand dollars’ worth 
of arms and ammunition for me. I told him that I 
would not be ransomed, that I would not be a party to 
making the life and liberty of every missionary in the 
Province forfeit to him, because should he succeed in 
getting the price for me he would simply catch another 
missionary and get his price for him, and so on. 

He afterward consented to forego this demand and 
asked that a blanket pardon be granted to him and all 
his bands seattered over the country for all the crimes 
committed in the last three years; but more about this 
later. 

At daylight we crossed the river and descended 
quickly to a small village not very far away. There we 
stopped for the day, as we were in a place where we 
could watch the fort should any pursuers come our way. 

There they tied up a man who refused to accede in- 
stantly to some of their demands. He was taken out and 
prepared for execution. His father and mother were 
kneeling and erying and begging all the while. I asked 
Yang why he was going to kill him. ‘‘ Well,’’ said he, 
“he lied to me.’’ I said, ‘‘Why, man, you’re not going 
to kill him for lying, are you?’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ he said, ‘‘I 
am.’’ ‘‘Well,’? I replied, ‘‘I hope you won’t go to 
shooting people for lying because there will not be any 
one left in the party to take me back, for the whole bunch 
of you have done nothing but lie ever since you got me.’’ 
This seemed to rather relieve the situation and on the 


TRAVELLING WITH THE BAND 171 


man promising that in the future he would stand ready 
to do their bidding and help them to the utmost of his 
ability, he was released from his bonds. 

Just as night was coming on we again took to the 
road, but contrary to expectations, we did not go very 
far; but having ascended well up the side of the moun- 
tain, stopped again for the night, sleeping behind stones 
and under trees. 

It was at this place that I brought my saddle-bags 
and threw them down in front of Yangtienfu and told 
him that if he wanted the stuff, or if any of the men 
wanted it to take it, and please be done with it—that I 
had some respect for a man who would hunt and rob and 
take his life in his hands in doing so, but a sneak thief 
I could not endure, and I had been having little things 
stolen from me, taken from my pockets and saddle-bags, 
ever since I had joined the party. He was exceedingly 
angry and told the men he would shoot the next man 
who should purloin any of my effects. 

It was there that my beard began to itech and bother 
me. I had no razor and though they sometimes shave 
with a pocket knife I had thought it advisable not to at- 
tempt to do likewise. It was about this time that I first 
noticed the tumour that had started in my neck. 

Some three days later we arrived at the extreme 
southern end of the trip. Money was secured. This 
also was a place where guns of the old type were manu- 
factured and all that could be obtained were bought. 
It was there also that, during the night, a runner came 
in bearing letters from Yunnanfu both for Yangtienfu 
and for me. 

I received two; one from Mrs. Shelton and one 
from the French Consul. The Consul stated that he had 
seen the Governor and that the Governor was willing 


172 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


to negotiate, that he had appointed Father Bailly as his 
representative to conduct the negotiations, and that he 
hoped the affair would be brought to a speedy conclu- 
sion, and I released. Mrs. Shelton also was very hope- 
ful that I would be home within the next week. The 
men were also hopeful that they would now be given 
pardon in exchange for my release and would be al- 
lowed to go home. They were tired of living as wild 
animals and longed to go home where they could stop 
without the constant fear of pursuers on the track. 

The next morning we started back and two days 
later arrived at one of the Governor’s copper mines. 
We stopped there for one day. The copper is mined 
and smelted in a very crude manner and run into 
plates weighing perhaps a hundred pounds. These are 
later carried on pack animals to the capital for sale or 
refining. 

At one other place where we stopped Yang had de- 
manded from a wealthy man two thousand dollars. He 
had refused, saying that he had no such amount of 
money. Yang, however, was fairly well informed as to 
the condition of the man from whom he demanded the 
money. He worked nearly all night on this man, try- 
ing to persuade him to peacefully and willingly con- 
tribute the two thousand dollars, but he was determined 
that he would not. In the morning almost as soon as 
we had arisen, word was brought to us that soldiers 
were within five miles of us, so within twenty minutes 
we were on the road and the man was tied up and taken 
along. 

We went on that day and again arrived just back of 
the mountain that separated us from Mitsao, where 
Father Bailly was. A man was sent on in advance to 
get Father Bailly to come across the mountain to where 


TRAVELLING WITH THE BAND 173 


we were. It was found, however, that he was not at 
home, having gone to town. 

While waiting for the messenger to return, they pro- 
ceeded to extract the promise of the two thousand dollars 
from the man who had been brought along. He was 
stripped to the waist and prepared for execution, his 
hands being tied behind his back, and he was made to 
kneel down. The executioner was sitting on the ground 
in front of him, whetting a sword on a stone. When 
the executioner got up and spit on his hands and grasped 
his sword the man had a change of heart and decided to 
pay the two thousand dollars, which he did a few days 
later. 

Late in the afternoon we passed through Mitsao, along 
the street of which Yang passed with an automatic Colt 
in one hand and an automatic mauser in the other, and a 
little later we arrived again at the temple where we had 
formerly spent a night and a day. 


XXVIII 
FATHER BAILLY—FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS 


HAT night after his return from town, Father 

Bailly came to the temple, and I saw him for 

the first time. He is rather a short man, round 

and fat, with a long white beard, a kindly smile, a 

twinkling eye, and a bald head. After talking for some 

time in Chinese (he can speak no English) he asked 

Yangtienfu to let me accompany him to his home, per- 

sonally offering to be responsible and, although he 

begged until I pleaded with him to quit, Yangtienfu was 
adamant. 

The next day he returned, bringing me a loaf of bread 
and some coffee, for which I was truly grateful. He 
also brought me a small home-made cheese, which tasted 
very good. 

I told Yang that in order to expedite negotiations he 
should be closer to Lao Yao Gwan, as it would consume 
too much time to have to be writing letters back and 
forth, and that as there was a telephone at Lao Yao Gwan 
it would be easy to be in constant communication with 
the Governor, thus securing at once confirmation of 
agreements reached by the negotiators. Yang was some- 
what skeptical as to the good faith of the Governor’s 
men and, while he agreed to move over to another place, 
it was so far on the other side of town that it was of no 
great advantage. 

We went over there and the next day retravelled quite 
boldly the road we had travelled the second night after 

174 


FATHER BAILLY 175 


my capture, and I now saw how near I had been that 
night to Mrs. Shelton and the children. 

At this stopping place it appeared as if negotiations 
were certainly to be carried out. The men were jubilant 
and at last two or three of the Governor’s men, accom- 
panied by Father Bailly, arrived on the scene, accom- 
panied by Yang’s son, who had been released by the 
Governor. His mother and wife arrived some few days 
before. 

It appeared as if the Governor intended to keep faith, 
and every one was jubilant. A day or two later the 
band was joined by a company of soldiers who had 
lately mutinied and killed their officers because of lack 
of pay. There was quite a ceremony in receiving them 
into the band. Speeches were made and, as it was con- 
fidently expected that pardon would be obtained for 
all, every one felt good. 

Father Bailly came again, bringing four letters. Mrs. 
Shelton had also obtained permission from the Gov- 
ernor to send me some bedding and some more clothes, 
which she did. Taking advantage of this permission, she 
had included several newspapers and it was in one of 
these that I read of the death of F. M. Rains. 

It was there that I had the finest talk it was my lot 
to have with Yangtienfu. There were times when all 
that was best in the man appeared to come to the sur- 
face, and when he seemed to have a genuine longing and 
desire to live a good life. There were other times when 
I think the evil was by far the dominant trait; when he 
would sacrifice anything on earth, including, if neces- 
sary, his mother, wife or son, to say nothing of his 
friends, if it would in any way forward his ends. 

In that place there joined the band a young smart 
Alec. He at once took it upon himself to constitute 


176 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


himself my special guard. He became exceedingly tire- 
some as day after day, surrounded by a band numbering 
now about two hundred, I had to listen to his continuous 
chatter, chatter, chatter. At times I would go off and 
lie down under a tree or behind the building in order 
to get a little quiet. The young man seemed to think 
that whenever I did so I was trying to escape, and he 
eame as quickly as possible around to where I was. I 
told him, ‘‘If you don’t quit following me around, unless 
Yangtienfu has made you my especial guardian, and, if 
he has, he has not informed me of it, I’ll fix you so you 
won’t be able to keep up with the band.’’ A little later 
he was again following me. I warned him again. Later 
in the day I was again walking along around one of the 
buildings and I noticed that he was watching me from 
the corner of his eye and suspected that he was going 
to follow me. I stepped around one of the buildings, 
but instead of going very far stopped right near the 
corner and seemed very much surprised that he was so 
near. I grabbed up a club which was lying near and 
started after him, He let out a yell and away we went. 
He came near dropping his gun but didn’t. We went 
down through the street, I in a great passion. Yang- 
tienfu, seeing us, said, ‘‘Here, here, here, what’s the 
matter?’’ I said, ‘‘I am going to kill him.’’ Yang ealled 
out, ‘“Wait a minute, wait a minute, let me kill him 
for you.’’ Yang did have him spanked and told him I 
would shoot him if he didn’t quit annoying me. 

We now went back to Mitsao. It appeared that 
negotiations would certainly be completed within the 
next few days and that I would be released. 

The band was planning a big celebration. Yang said 
they were going to buy fifty dollars’ worth of fire- 
crackers with which to escort me into the capital. He 


FATHER BAILLY 177 


was lavish in promises of different kinds, but he was very 
much eoncerned that I was going to leave them, and the 
day before it appeared that negotiations were certainly 
going through, he came to me and said, ‘‘See here, there 
is no use of your going back at all. You come and stay 
with us. We need you. You can be our doctor, and 
you can be our chaplain too, and if you organize a 
church we’ll all join, as we need you badly. We’re go- 
ing to give you twelve thousand dollars a year, and 
we’ll pay you six months in advance,’’ and right there 
he began counting out bills. 

I said, ‘‘Here, wait; I can’t do any such thing as this 
because I have my own work to do. You don’t seem to 
realize that I have my family waiting to be taken to 
the coast.’’ It was a great disappointment to him that 
I would not willingly consent to stay with them. 

Finally the men who were to negotiate for the Gov- 
ernor came, and then began a long series of dickering. 
They seemed unable to make any progress until I got 
very angry because of the nature of the discussion and 
told them that neither side appeared to have the ability 
to do anything but lie and smoke opium all day long; 
then they came to an agreement. The men left the 
following morning to report by telephone to the Gov- 
ernor. 

The agreement was to the effect that the band were 
to be pardoned and were to be given charge of the road 
for a distance of twelve days. Their pay was to be fur- 
nished by the local officials along this road and they 
were to constitute themselves the guardians and pro- 
tectors of its whole length. The Governor was willing 
to grant their pardon, but was not willing to give them 
charge of a considerable portion of the country. 

He was persuaded by his men that night that it was 


178 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


unnecessary to even consider pardoning Yang and his 
band because it would be a very easy matter to capture 
them, as there were not more than two hundred or a 
few more in the band at the time. Because of this 
representation soldiers started in our direction that 
night. Yangtienfu’s Intelligence Department, how- 
ever, was far better than that of the Governor, and just 
as soon as he knew that soldiers had started in our diree- 
tion, we were up and off again. He not only took me, 
but he also took his mother, wife and son, who had been 
returned to him. 

A few days before, when his wife and mother had 
arrived, Father Bailly asked him to let me go to his 
place. Yang said, ‘‘What do two women amount to? Of 
course I’d like to have my wife but I can buy one just 
as good as she any day for a hundred dollars, so the 
Governor needn’t think he has done anything very par- 
ticular in turning over to me two women.’’ His son, 
however, was considered to be of more importance. 

So we were again on the move. 


XXIX 
SHOOTING A MAN 


OW began about forty days of most strenuous 

N travelling, the most strenuous that I ever had. 
T had been travelling for forty-seven days be- 

fore I was captured, and had been travelling for a month 
since I was captured, and the strain was beginning to 
tell. Up to this time the tumour in my neck had given 
me not a great deal of trouble, but it now began to grow 
at an increased rate and began paining to some extent. 

The men and Yangtienfu did not mistreat me, in fact 
they treated me as a guest and as well as was possible in 
the circumstances, living as they were like wild animals, 
being chased over the mountain by dogs, sleeping at 
night many times under the trees and behind rocks. At 
one time they discussed what would be the effect of kill- 
ing me, whether or not it would be advisable. They 
eame to the conclusion that it would not be advisable 
because Yang himself hoped some day to be Governor 
of Yunnan, and they considered that, should they kill 
me, he might be looked upon with disfavour by the rep- 
resentatives of the foreign powers, so it was definitely 
decided that I was not to be killed in any case. 

We were travelling in a very irregular course, but 
within two days we had crossed to the north of the main 
road and started toward the bend in the Yangtze River 
some days to the north. 

It was now nearing Chinese New Year, which date ig 

179 


180 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


an important one with every Chinese. It is the time 
of year that he wants to go home and be with his family. 
It is the greatest time in the whole year. 

One day we had stopped for noon at a small place and 
on getting ready to start on I noticed four of the men 
in the road kneeling and crying. The whole bunch was 
around them and talking in quite loud voices. I rode 
up and asked Yang what the trouble was. He said, 
‘“These fellows want to go home.’’ ‘‘Well,’’ I said, 
‘faren’t you going to let them?’’ He had some days 
previously, on taking them into the band (they were of 
the company of soldiers who joined the band), promised 
them that they should be allowed to go home at any time 
they wished to go, but that they would not be allowed 
to take their guns, but must dispose of them for a rea- 
sonable price to the band; the guns and ammunition 
were never to be disposed of, and on these terms the 
men had joined. Several of them now wanted to go 
but permission was refused. 

To see the men thus forced to continue in this life 
when I knew that there were a great many who were 
genuinely desirous of quitting, made me very angry. 
I said to him in quite a loud tone of voice so that all those 
around could hear, ‘‘ Why don’t you take those four men 
and me, for I want to go back, too, and stand us up 
against the wall and shoot us? We’re all in the same 
mood and you’re going to get before very long what they 
gave their officials some days ago when they mutinied. 
You can’t continue to deceive men and misrepresent 
things to them and keep it up. They’ll turn some day 
and you will be shot.’’ 

I was talking right out in meeting, for I knew that 
there were more than fifty men in the group who were 
ready for mutiny. This was very embarrassing to Yang 


SHOOTING A MAN 181 


and in order to put an end to the seene he ordered the 
eolumn forward. Some of his regulations were very 
good. The treatment accorded the women and girls by 
the soldiers in some of the places was exceedingly brutal. 
Yang had said to his men, ‘‘ You let the women alone.”’ 
However, one day when we had distanced the soldiers 
to such an extent that Yang considered it safe to stay 
all night, one of the men in the party, seeing a girl with 
whom he was very much enamoured, simply took her. 

The next morning after we were ready to start, a man 
and woman came into the courtyard where Yang was, 
crying and going on in Chinese fashion, and coming up 
to Yang got down on their knees and began kotowing. 
He asked, ‘‘What’s the matter now?’’ They replied 
that their home was now ruined, that their daughter had 
been taken by one of his men, and that they were very 
miserable indeed. Yang said, ‘‘Do you know who it 
was?’’ They said they did, and he asked, ‘‘Can you 
point him out?’’ They said, ‘‘That is he over in the 
eorner.’’ When Yang looked in the man’s direction 
for a moment, he saw that guilt was written all over the 
man’s face. He didn’t even deny the charge. 

Yang said to some of the men sitting near, ‘‘Bring 
him over here.’?’ Yang looked at him hard for a mo- 
ment and then said to the men, ‘‘Tie him up,’’ which 
they did by tying his elbows behind his back. ‘‘Now,’’ 
said he to some of the other men, ‘‘we’re going out this 
road. You take him out and shoot him in the middle 
of the road and let him lie there until we come along, 
so that every one can see what is coming to him in like 
circumstances. ’’ 

Ten minutes later we went along and saw that he had 
a hole in him almost the size of a tin can. 

At different times I was shown many kindnesses by 


182 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


these men and had a great many friends in the party. 
One day when we had been travelling especially hard and 
reached a place at nearly midnight where Yang had de- 
cided to stop until morning, I was so worn out that I 
had lain down in an old grain room. A little later I 
was awakened by the man whom I considered the 
toughest character in the whole gang. He was 
standing by my side and holding a lighted candle by 
my head. I roused up and asked, ‘‘ What’s the matter ?’’ 
He said, ‘‘I stole an orange. I want to share it with 
you.’’ It was exceedingly grateful in the feverish con- 
dition in which I then was. 

Travelling as we were, it was very difficult to get a 
bath, but one day after I had become so dirty that it 
was impossible to stand it any longer, when Yangtienfu 
announced that we were going to stop for at least two 
hours, I finally obtained some hot water and succeeded 
in getting a partial bath. I asked him if he didn’t want 
one too. He said, no, he was afraid he would catch cold, 
as he hadn’t taken a bath for over three years. 

During one of Yang’s good days he asked me to take 
his boy to educate, saying that he would like to have 
him grow up to be a man of ability and not, as he him- 
self was, able neither to read nor write, and that he 
would pay all expenses. JI told him that I would be 
very glad to do this for him and, up to the time that I 
became so ill that I could no longer talk matters with 
him, he was continually referring to the arrangements 
that it would be necessary to make. During the first 
month, he himself had learned the alphabet, a few words 
in English, and was able to count a little. 

After the failure of the negotiations and when we had 
taken to the road the second time, Yang with his family 
and myself travelled for some days, but it soon became 


SHOOTING A MAN 183 


evident that the rate was entirely too strenuous for the 
women. As a consequence, when we were heading for a 
certain place one afternoon, he with one of the men, his 
mother, wife and son, halted at the side of the road 
for a little while. The column got considerably in 
advance. This was a very unusual thing. Within an 
hour the column stopped to rest and wait for him to 
come up. After waiting for quite a while some one 
was sent back to see why he was not coming and it 
was reported that he had taken a different road alto- 
gether. The understanding that we were to arrive that 
night at such and such a place had been plain, and there- 
fore we could not understand why he had gone a dif- 
ferent road. 

The Captain who had me in charge now assumed com- 
mand and decided that we should go on to the place 
agreed upon, which we did. The people had all fled and 
the party moved into what had been the public build- 
ings. Here things were thrown about in great con- 
fusion. There was a great store of charcoal in one of 
the rooms and, as it was very cold, the different groups 
made haste to appropriate it and, during the evening, 
many hundred pounds of charcoal were burned. 

I had taken my horse blankets and lain down, as my 
bedding had been stolen or lost, together with all my 
elothes, during the night of the flight. It was never 
recovered. I had been sleeping perhaps an hour when 
I was awakened by Captain Gnan and told that Yang- 
tienfu had sent for us and was very much worried, and 
that we should immediately take to the road and join 
him some ten miles out, which we did about four o’clock 
in the morning, but when we joined him he was alone; 
his wife, mother and boy were not there. He had taken 
them to the house, presumably of a friend, but it mat- 


184 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


tered little whether it was the house of a friend or an 
enemy ; fear of his vengeance would be a sufficient motive 
to prevent their revealing their whereabouts to the 
authorities. 

After two hours’ rest we were on again and in a day 
or so arrived at Long Gai. There we spent two or three 
days as, after the failure of the Governor’s coup, Yang 
had again, through some of the local magistrates of the 
districts, attempted to reopen negotiations. Only ex- 
treme desire on the part of many of the men to end this 
sort of life induced Yang to again consider a reopening 
of the question. 

Finally it was decided that he would meet one of the 
men. The time spent at Long Gai was a very grateful 
period of rest. For two days and two nights we were 
not required to move. During this time I did some writ- 
ing and hired a man, with Yang’s consent, to take let- 
ters to the capital. I wrote personally to the Governor 
and asked him that, if it were possible for him to do 
anything, to please do it quickly, as I was in very poor 
physical condition. 

Yang also sent letters to the Governor stating what 
terms would be acceptable to him. But he also stated 
that no terms whatever would be acceptable unless they 
were guaranteed by some foreign power, as he was fear- 
ful of bad faith on the Governor’s part. 

This man was sent off, he agreeing to make the trip 
of five days to the capital and to be back within five 
days. He was well paid, and I learned afterward that 
he reached the capital successfully and was provided 
with letters for me, some more clothes, papers, ete., by 
Mrs. Shelton and the French Consul, but on his attempt 
to leave the city he was seized by the Governor, all let- 
ters and articles confiscated, and he was cast into prison. 


SHOOTING A MAN 185 


While we were in Long Gai Yangtienfu provided en- 
tertainment for the band by hiring a company of sleight 
of hand performers for a whole day. Some of their 
tricks were very good indeed, but some were very crude. 
One young lady who was taking the part of a very 
famous character in Chinese history was asked by one 
of the other members of the company, ‘‘ From whence did 
you come?’’ She replied, ‘‘From Peking.’’ ‘‘Why,’’ 
he said, ‘‘that is a long ways—some three thousand 
miles. When did you arrive?’’ ‘‘Yesterday.’’ ‘‘When 
did you start?’’ ‘‘This morning.’’ And he replied, 
‘‘My, that is fast travelling.’’ 

My stock of medicines had been almost exhausted. I 
still had, however, a supply for making eye ointment, 
and, as soon as it was found that I had eye medicine, I 
was besieged on every hand. I was compelled to refuse 
treating all other diseases because of lack of medicine, but 
the treatment for sore eyes was sufficient. 

After this rest of two days we took the back track, 
for what purpose I did not know, as we started off very 
suddenly one morning without any previous warning. 
We travelled all day and stopped at night at a small vil- 
lage where good entertainment was provided by the vil- 
lagers. 

Some time during the night a great quantity of money 
was brought in and early the next morning Yang be- 
gan paying the men. While he was dividing the money 
he brought a hundred dollars in silver to me and in- 
sisted that I take it. I told him that I had no use for 
it whatever, that it would only weight me down. He 
said, ‘‘ Well, any time you want any just let me know; 
but you better take some anyhow to buy sugar for the 
mule.’? He put down a pile of half dollars on the 
table before me, taken up at random from the hat in 


186 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


which he was carrying the money. I counted it later 
and it was forty dollars. 

The next morning we were off again, still on the back- 
ward track. We did not go very far this day. About 
ten o’clock we stopped, and during the rest of the day 
the men loafed and gambled and smoked opium. 

I went to Yang’s quarters late in the afternoon to 
see him and was told that he was not in. Late at night 
he was still not there, but early the next morning he 
was there and with him his mother, wife, and son. 

This day we turned around again and went back to- 
ward Long Gai. We travelled hard all day. I was told 
that the Governor’s representative was to meet us that 
night at a little village not far from Long Gai. 

I was congratulated by the different members of the 
party on my impending release, and was told that it was 
now only a matter of two or three days. I did not, how- 
ever, hold forth any very strong hopes, as long dealing 
with the Chinese had taught me that it is only when a 
matter is actually accomplished you can be certain. 
We got into this village an hour before sundown and we 
were expected. A good meal was being prepared and 
when it was ready, which was at nearly sundown, the 
band was still waiting for the Governor’s representa- 
tive to appear over the rise about a half mile back in 
the road. Instead of the Governor’s man appearing, 
there was suddenly a ery, ‘‘The soldiers, the soldiers!’’ 
and there appeared on the road about two hundred men 
and in a very few minutes the place was surrounded and 
bullets were flying in every direction. 


XXX 
THE FIRST BATTLE 


E had no time to eat supper. Each man 
\ \ grabbed some of the food and seized his gun, 
shoving in a mouthful now and then as oc¢a- 
sion offered. I took a piece of meat and wrapped it in 
an old handkerchief and put it in my hip pocket for a 
more convenient time. My mule, with the saddle on, 
was led quickly into the main building of the village, 
and at Yangtienfu’s command all the men were 
congregated in the main building. There was no time, 
however, for bringing in all the animals, and for but 
very little of the stuff that was being earried along. 
As a consequence, several mule loads of all sorts and 
kinds of things had to be left in the mad scramble. The 
doors were barred, but firing was kept up constantly 
from the upper story. One of the men, called a Major 
in the organization, had lost his life because he refused 
to believe that the people we saw coming were soldiers, 
as they had taken off their soldier clothes and dressed in 
the familiar manner in which the bandits were dressed. 
He believed that it was some of the other bandits under 
Yang’s control coming to join them here and in this 
belief had his men withhold their fire until the first 
volley was fired, and he was killed. Some five or six 
men were lost and there was great consternation in the 
band. 
Some inside went up and down erying and saying, 
187 


188 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


‘‘Brothers, brothers, we are lost.’? With these Yang- 
tienfu was very stern and told them that if they would 
not be quiet he himself would shoot them, He did kill 
three of his own men that night because he found them 
trying to effect an escape from the building, in order to 
join the soldiers. 

Yang instructed Captain Gnan that he and twelve 
men were to have charge of me and were to have no 
other duties, that they were not to engage in the fight 
at all unless it should come to hand-to-hand combat. 

These men surrounded me in the hall and we stood 
there for more than an hour while different expedients 
were being tried out. I became so tired finally that I 
asked Yang if I couldn’t lie down. He had me shown 
to a room up-stairs and I lay down and there, in spite 
of the continuous racket and shooting, I dropped off to 
sleep, not waking up until Captain Gnan, shaking me, 
said, ‘‘It’s time to go.”’ 

I went down-stairs and by the light of torches saw 
several dead men lying around. The firing had almost 
ceased, just an occasional shot. 

The division of the loot had proved too much for the 
soldiers and they had withdrawn about a mile for that 
purpose, and thus gave the band an opportunity to 
escape. The killing of all would have been a com- 
paratively easy matter had they stationed men so as to 
cover the two exits from the building and, if necessary, 
sent for reinforcements. But here was the opportunity 
and Yang lost no time in taking advantage of it. 

Quietly opening the door and extinguishing all lights 
he led the way, we all following in single file. Just in- 
side the door was one of the soldiers who had been shot 
and his body and gun dragged inside. 

Some of the men, after an ancient Chinese custom, 


THE FIRST BATTLE 189 


had removed his clothes, piled them on his breast, and 
burned them. In passing out one of the men gave the 
body a kick and said, ‘‘ You dog.”’ 

Two or three men had been temporarily left behind to 
give the illusion that we were still there and they kept 
firing from the upper story until we had gone a sufficient 
distance; then they too could leave their posts and join 
the main band. 

We went on through the night very quietly, the light 
from one of the buildings (not the main one) which had 
been set on fire, showing from time to time after we as- 
cended the mountain where the battle had been fought. 

We went on and on hour after hour up this mountain 
where there was no road. It was impossible for the 
mules to go where we were going and one of the boys 
took my mule around by a way that was much longer. 
We had to go up many times on all fours, and I was 
very quickly exhausted. I was helped along, however, 
by the men, but before reaching the top I was so com- 
pletely exhausted that it was impossible to go further; 
and so I told Captain Gnan. So we rested there for a 
while. It was bitterly cold and in order to keep warm 
I lay down between two of the men. We spooned. 
When the top-side had become so cold that we could 
stand it no longer, we would turn over on the other side 
for a while. 

Along toward daylight we made our way, cold and 
stiff, over the top and down a short distance on the 
other side where the light of the fire did not show, and 
there we built a roaring fire by which we were consider- 
ably revived. 

After it became light enough to travel we were again 
on the road descending the long valley. We kept up 
the pass all day long and stayed that night within sight 


190 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


of the Yangtze and in a much warmer country, having 
descended to a much lower altitude. Here were fields 
of poppies in full bloom and a few were ready for the 
harvesting of opium. 

We spent the night there with guards out in every 
direction, and the next morning were off again over 
another pass. 

This was the last day of the old year. To-morrow 
would be New Year’s, about February 20th. The men 
had hoped that there would be a chance to rest on the 
Chinese New Year, but here, just when they were ex- 
pecting to have a good time, was the worst condition of 
all. 

We went on over this pass, which was exceedingly 
steep, but when we had ascended to the top we did not 
at once go down again, but waited for two or three 
hours, the men watching with my glasses in every direc- 
tion for any sign of the military. None having ap- 
peared, men were sent to act as spies and bring reports. 

Going around the side of the mountain for about two 
hours, we arrived at a small village perched far up on 
the mountain overlooking the great valley to the north. 
There we prepared to spend the night and the next day. 
As that was New Year’s, except under the gravest neces- 
sity, no move would be made. 

Two or three hogs and many chickens were procured 
and preparations made for a great feast. The next day 
there was no disturbanee, but toward evening some of the 
spies came in and reported that the soldiers were less 
than three miles away, camped on a plateau just back 
of the ridge. 

There was very great apprehension as to what might 
happen that night, but Yang was quite confident that 
nothing would be attempted on New Year’s Day, 


THE FIRST BATTLE 191 


They were out and ready, however, by daylight the 
next morning, but nothing happened till toward noon, 
when word was brought very suddenly that the soldiers 
were approaching. The men had been in position for 
some time, that is, those who were to fight. The rest 
of the body was to move on across a ravine and up the 
opposite slope on a predetermined road leading on to 
the north and east. 

The battle began and we from the opposite slope could 
see them running back and forth amid the trees and 
wondered how it might be going. The bullets occasion- 
ally came over to where we were and two or three spent 
bullets were picked up by the men while we were watch- 
ing the fight. 

Yang took about twenty men and went to intercept the 
soldiers should any of them discover our course of flight 
and try to pursue. This was not the case, however, 
and before night the band were all together again, that 
is, those who were not dead. I always rather imagined 
that their losses were minimized and those on the op- 
posite side exaggerated, for it was said that night that 
more than thirty soldiers had been killed and five or six 
of the band. 

There were brought along four men who were 
wounded. ‘Two were in very serious condition, one hav- 
ing been shot through the breast, and the other through 
the thigh. I procured some cloth and after boiling it, 
made bandages, and tended to the wounds as best I could 
with no facilities. 

These men were carried for many days, the man shot 
through the breast refusing to be left behind, and 
eventually he was on the highroad to recovery. One 
man with his leg smashed had been left on the field of 
battle, refusing to be moved. His gun had been taken 


192 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


and he had been left there to die. I learned subse- 
quently from the soldiers who were in the fight that they 
found him and beheaded him where he lay. 

Yangtienfu said now that there was no use of talking 
about negotiating, that he could see plainly it was im- 
possible to negotiate with a man such as the Governor, 
and it appeared so to me. 

This did not, however, in any way help me and I was 
suffering greatly from the pain in my shoulder and neck. 
Yang said that now we were going to Szechuen, that we 
would cross the river into the Province to the north 
where we would be out of reach of the Governor, and 
that I would be eventually freed and let go down river 
to Suifu and Chungking. 

He asked if I would not send for Mrs. Shelton and 
the girls and have them come, and we would all go out 


the same way. This I refused to attempt under any ~ 


consideration. 


ae 


XXXT 
A VISIT — LETTERS 


WO days later we arrived at the seat of one of 

the local tusis, or headmen, of one of the tribes. 

Yang had expected to receive assistance from 

him, and that he would join him, but on arriving in the 

village he found that he had fled, but his son was there. 

The son came out along the road a considerable distance 

to meet Yang, received him very graciously and put 

everything in the village at his disposal. Quarters were 

found for all the men and anything that the village 
could provide was forthcoming. 

I learned later that this place suffered greatly at the 
hands of the soldiers after we had gone. 

The next day was to be market day, but many people 
from the surrounding country were greatly afraid and 
were not coming. However, Yang sent out word that no 
one would be molested and that all articles would be 
paid for. Quite a few people came on this assurance 
and, to his eredit, there was very little looting. One 
man brought pears and everybody wanted them. Asa 
consequence, everybody made a dive and got what he 
could, and in less than a minute his basket was empty, 
and he hadn’t received a cent. A few minutes later 
Yang passed along and the man said to him, ‘‘ You prom- 
ised us that there would be no looting, and now I have 
lost all that I had.’? Yang asked him what he had and 
when he told him pears, he asked how much they were 

193 


194 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


apiece, and about how many he had. Yang calculated 
as to about what the amount would be and gave him 
twice that much. The man was very glad that he had 
been looted. 

That afternoon we were told that we were going on 
and we all started up the mountain. We had only gone 
about two miles when we came to a fine level spot be- 
tween two mountains and there we stopped. We stayed 
there all afternoon and night and until late in the fol- 
lowing afternoon; Yang himself was not there. On 
inquiry the men said that he had gone to the river to see 
if the ferries could be captured for crossing. 

Late that afternoon a man came hurrying up from the 
village and handed me a letter with the instruction that 
if there was any answer I should write it at once. It 
was from Mrs. Shelton and she stated that she had sent 
Shensi, our cook, with letters, in the hope that he might 
be able to get through, as several others had failed. 

I asked where the messenger was. They said that he 
had not been able to come but had hired a man to bring 
the letter. Mrs. Shelton stated in the letter that she was 
losing hope, but that the girls were perfectly confident. I 
asked that I might be allowed to go down to the village 
and see the man who had come. This they refused. I 
therefore hastily wrote an answer and gave it to the man. 

We spent another night in this gully, protecting our- 
selves as best we could from the wind. Early the next 
morning my mule was saddled and Captain Gnan in- 
formed me that Yang had sent up word that I was to 
come down to the village. I went, not knowing what 
might be the occasion. On riding in I saw a man lying 
on a manure pile apparently dead, his face covered with 
a handkerchief. I asked who it was and they replied, 
‘A spy.’’? On walking into the building where Yang 


A VISIT—LETTERS 195 


was quartered I was met by Shensi. He gave me one 
long look, seized my hand and broke down. Yang said 
to him, ‘‘Don’t do that now. You’ll make Dr. Shelton 
feel bad.’’? We spent an hour or so talking. I wrote 
another letter to Mrs. Shelton, stating that I had seen 
Shensi and asking her not to send him any more, as it was 
extremely dangerous attempting this kind of thing. 

I had been brought down for the purpose of identify- 
ing him. If he were my cook, as he claimed he was, he 
was not to be molested. If not, he would probably have 
been killed. His companion, a man whom he had hired 
to show him the road, as he was totally unacquainted 
with this part of the country, was the man I had seen 
lying on the manure pile. He had been tied up between 
two posts and beaten until unconscious and thrown there. 
Shensi had not been allowed to see him. Yang informed 
Shensi that he would be allowed to go, but the other man 
could not, as he was a spy sent by the military. After 
an hour or two, however, Yang consented to our com- 
bined entreaty that he be allowed to accompany Shensi 
back, as Shensi was utterly unable to understand the talk 
of the tribes of people among whom we were and would 
be unable to secure food and transportation. It was 
finally agreed that he should go. He was, however, un- 
able to walk, and Yang secured two mules with an order 
from the tusi that they should be replaced at the next 
village by other animals, and so they set off on their re- 
turn journey. 

Yang’s wife, mother and son had again disappeared. 
It seemed he had not been able to capture the ferries. 
He therefore started on east and kept going for some 
days. 

I was rapidly nearing the end of my strength. I had 
taken advantage of Shensi’s going to send out, with 


196 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Yangtienfu’s consent, the little volume containing my 
diary up to this time. This would give Mrs. Shelton a 
day-by-day account of what had taken place. I also 
sent with him a small camera which had been in my 
saddle-bags with which I had taken eight or ten pic- 
tures. This camera at first had been a source of great 
amusement to these people. They wanted to know what 
it was and how it worked, ete. Several had wanted to 
have their pictures taken and I had taken them. They 
immediately wanted to see them. I tried to explain to 
them that it was necessary that the film be washed in the 
dark with certain medicines, but it was no use. They 
were determined to see the inside of it and the film. I 
took it out and they, seeing that the film was perfectly 
white and that there was no picture thereon, seemed to 
lose interest in the matter entirely, and I was thus en- 
abled to preserve the one other film I had possessed after 
the pictures had been taken. 

The soldiers were following us as reports were con- 
stantly coming in. It was also ascertained that others 
were being sent. Shensi had brought word that the 
United States Government was at last sending a man 
through to look into the matter. Up to this time I had 
felt that practically no interest had been taken in my 
fate by the authorities in Washington. I was somewhat 
cheered by the fact that at last some one was coming, 
but could not understand why it had taken nearly two 
months for them to act, and doubted very much their 
ability to arrange things in the present state of affairs. 
However, I was utterly helpless and could do nothing 
but simply wait. 

Three days out from this place we began, a few at a 
time, to turn to the right, while the main body kept on. 
This was for the purpose of misleading the soldiers, 


A VISIT—LETTERS 197 


Fifty men were sent on ahead to make a trail which the 
soldiers could easily follow while the main body turned 
off at right angles to the course we had been pursuing. 
That night these men came across the long side of the 
triangle and joined us at a predetermined place. 

We waited there the next day until word came that 
the soldiers were coming along the opposite ridge. The 
men spent the time using my glasses and watching the 
soldiers following the wrong trail. 

It was there that I became unable to further stay on 
my mule. When I would be lifted up I simply crumpled 
up and rolled off. The band tied two poles together and 
put me on them and drafted four men of the village to 
earry me, which they did all day long on the backward 
trail. 

The second day, after spending the night in a very 
wild part of the mountains, we crossed the trail of the 
soldiers, turned again north toward Fanchow. I was in 
a very miserable condition now, but one day later we 
were allowed to rest for some hours on the top of a moun- 
tain. They were making for Fanchow but word came 
that a force of soldiers was also coming out from there. 

In the village where we stopped that afternoon were 
some fine young chickens. I saw people making corn 
bread. I had eaten rice and the fat pork that they pro- 
vided for so long a time that it seemed impossible for 
me to swallow another grain. I was very weak but man- 
aged to crawl out and through one of the men who un- 
derstood the tribe’s talk, succeeded in buying a young 
chicken. I got some fat meat fried out, used the grease 
and fried the chicken, and then made a little corn bread 
with salt and water. I felt as if I could eat the whole 
chicken. But when it came to the trial, although it was 
very good, I was able to eat very little. I tied the rest 


198 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


up in a handkerchief, which I washed for the purpose, 
and put it into one of my large pockets. 

Just at night time word came that another band of 
soldiers was coming from another direction. According 
to reports we were being surrounded. It was said that 
there were more than two thousand soldiers on the field. 
Things looked serious, and at ten o’clock we were on the 
road again. 

We went on all that night and going down a very steep 
mountainside, but immediately after daylight we started 
up another. 

I was being carried by men drafted from the villages 
through which we passed. They were having an awful 
time, as was I. I was sometimes almost standing on my 
head as we went up. 

We went on all the next day without rest and toward 
evening soldiers were seen in the distance, and we were 
compelled to turn down into another very steep valley. 

We went on and on until about three o’clock in the 
morning and then the band decided at the village 
through which we were going that I was not worth earry- 
ing further and that I should be left behind. 


XXXII 
DROPPED 


This loft was only about three and one-half feet 

high and was filled with rice straw. In this straw 
they dug a hole leading clear to the back end and in 
there they hollowed out a place sufficiently large for a 
man to lie in, and in this they put me, with four men 
from the village to care for me. Three of these were 
tribesmen whose language I could not understand; the 
headman was a Chinaman. 

The instructions to these men, I afterward learned, 
were that, in the event of my death, I should be disposed 
of secretly; but should I recover sufficiently to be able 
to travel again, Yangtienfu was to be informed, and he 
would return and get me. 

IT lay in this hole in the straw for five days and nights, 
and in all my life I think that this was the most grateful 
experience, just to be able to lie still and not have to go 
on and on and on. I removed my clothes for the first 
time in many days and, a day or two later, when I was 
a little rested, I secured a pan of hot water through the 
kindness of the Chinaman and took a bath as best I 
could. 

This Chinaman came to me the second night, I think, 
with a proposition that he go to the China Inland Mis- 
sion stationed a day’s journey away and see if they 
would send some one to get me, inquiring if I had enough 
money to hire a man for the purpose. I had still about 

199 


| WAS taken to an old barn and put up in the loft. 


200 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


ten or twelve dollars which had not been taken when I 
was dropped. 

When he was departing Captain Gnan had come in 
and held my hand for a time and said that I should com- 
fort my heart and not be worried, as they would come 
back in a few days and get me. He was weeping when 
they left. 

The boy who had taken care of my mule also came 
and, kneeling down at my side, cried and asked me to 
pray for him. 

When the band left they took everything of which I 
was possessed; my mule, to whom I owed my life over 
and over again, my saddle, gun, glasses, ete. I still had 
this little more than ten dollars, and I grasped this 
straw and told the man that I had money to pay for 
being taken to the mission station and asked why they 
could not get men here to take me there. I was unable 
to walk, but pointed out that I could be carried on poles, 
as I had been the last several days. He told me to leave 
it to him and he would see what could be done. 

I readily gave the man the’money and didn’t see him 
again for two days. On seeing him again I upbraided 
him for his treatment. He replied that he had been to 
the China Inland Mission station to see what could be 
done but when he got there he found that Yangtienfu 
had been there before him, and that now the two men of 
the station were his prisoners. I doubted whether or 
not this was true, but found out later that it was. 

These two Englishmen, however, were in home coun- 
try and were acquainted with all the surrounding vil- 
lages, many of which they had been in and had converts 
and were thus enabled to escape very quickly, one being 
in captivity only one day and night, the other escaping 
within the week. 


EE 


DROPPED 201 


I was in such pain that I had to take opium three 
times during the five days that I lay in the straw and in 
quite large doses. I procured this opium and had taken 
it once before I had been dropped. I tried to get it from 
Captain Gnan, but he had refused to let me have it, fear- 
ing that I intended to commit suicide. I had gone then 
directly to Yangtienfu and he procured for me an ounce. 

Hundreds and hundreds of acres in this country were 
in opium this last year, put in and cultivated at the in- 
stance of Yangtienfu, who had promised the people pro- 
tection from the Government troops. Opium had for- 
merly been six to nine dollars an ounce at harvest time; 
now it was only fifty cents an ounce. 

I have just received letters from China stating that 
Yang is still at large and is now demanding and collect- 
ing a tax from these people for having protected them, 
so that they are in worse condition with the low price of 
opium and his tax than they would have been had they 
planted other crops. 

The Chinaman returned to me the ten dollars, think- 
ing that he would eventually get it anyhow. It ap- 
peared to me at the time as if all the plans of my life had 
been wrecked. I had had such high hopes of accom- 
plishing something, and now, if I were to wind up in 
this out-of-the-way corner of the Empire, my life would 
more or less have been in vain. One verse of Scripture 
kept constantly recurring to my mind. It was this: 
*‘For unto you it is given not only to believe on him, 
but also to suffer with him.’’ I had made one great mis- 
take, which I will never make again, and that is, I had 
with me only a New Testament. It should have been the 
whole Bible, and if ever taken again I will not be without 
the consolation of the Psalms. Some one has said that 
he who carries his temple about with him can go to prayer 


202 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


when he pleases, with Moses in the wilderness, with 
Daniel in the lions’ den, with Jonah in the fish’s belly, 
with Paul in prison, or with Jesus on the mountain or 
on the cross, and the seeker after God will find, wherever 
he may be, that that place is none other than the house 
of God and the gate of Heaven. This is true. 

The morning of the sixth day the Chinaman came in 
and said, ‘‘I believe that you are able to travel again, 
and your being here greatly endangers the whole village, 
for if the soldiers ever find that you are here they will 
destroy it. So I am going to call Yangtienfu to come 
and get you again, for we cannot have you here longer.”’ 
And he started off. 

That afternoon about four o’clock an old man who had 
been there helping him gather opium, an old China- 
man, between seventy and eighty, came crawling back 
through the hole in the straw, erying bitterly. I said 
to him, ‘‘What is the matter?’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ he said, ‘‘the 
soldiers are coming.’’ ‘‘ Well,’’ I replied, ‘‘that is noth- 
ing to ery about.’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ he said, ‘‘that is all right 
for you, but I’m the first man whose head they will cut 
off.’’ I told him that he should not be alarmed, because 
he had been good to me and was in no way to blame for 
my plight, and that I would do all in my power to help 
him should the soldiers come. 

The rumour that the soldiers were coming was suffi- 
cient to frighten the whole village, and within a few 
minutes they had all fled to the mountains, taking such 
personal belongings as they were able to carry, and 
the village was deserted. We waited for more than 
an hour and yet no soldiers came. The rumour was 
false. 

But there was coming through that afternoon a minor 
official travelling with only one servant, who was on his 


DROPPED 203 


way to investigate the looting of the China Inland Mis- 
sion mentioned before. 

When he arrived in the village, with the help of the 
old man, I crawled out to meet him. He was greatly as- 
tonished at finding that I was there. The authorities 
had been using every effort for more than two months 
to secure my release, and here I now was in his hands, 
without any effort on his part whatever. 


XXXII 
ESCAPE 


ITH the help of his servant I was able to walk 

\ X / on to the next village, which was distant only 

between a quarter and a half a mile, where 
he procured for me eight men who were to help me over 
the mountains to the mission station. They had no 
method of conveyance at all nor could they arrange one, 
so twisting together a rope from hemp, I got hold of the 
middle and, with them pulling, we started up the moun- 
tain. In this way I was able to walk for three hours. 

We had started between five and six o’clock in the 
afternoon. At the end of three hours I was in such con- 
dition that I could no longer stand. When I was lifted 
to my feet my legs would give way and down I 
would go. We had, however, reached the first Chris- 
tian village and, though we could not understand a 
single word of the language spoken, the fact that we 
were in a Christian village meant more to me than any- 
thing had previously. Not only eight men came out to 
see me on my way, but the whole village, men, women, 
and children. 

One old lady would hardly let go of my hand and kept 
holding and holding. I was offered food in great abun- 
dance, but could eat very little. 

Being unable to walk and having no method of con- 
veyance, two of the huskiest men came, one on each side, 

204 


ESCAPE 205 


and with their shoulders together they lifted me up, and 
I was able to wiggle my legs, and away we went. 

We went on and on through the night. It seemed as 
if we would never reach the mission station, but at last, 
between twelve and one o’clock in the morning, we ar- 
rived only to find that the people, having seen us coming 
(we were a great torchlight procession), had fled, leaving 
in charge only one old man and one old woman. They 
were told who I was and I asked for assistance. They 
were plainly incredulous. and refused to believe that I 
was Dr. Shelton. Through a man who could speak a 
little Chinese they said, ‘‘ We have been praying for Dr. 
Shelton for over two months, but this is not he.’’ 

My whiskers are somewhat of the Bolsheviki type. I 
had had no razor, and they were greatly frightened. 
They said, ‘‘This man is some Russian or a Frenchman, 
for Americans don’t have whiskers like these.’’ Finally 
I was able to persuade them that I was Dr. Shelton, and 
they sent to the mountains and called back those who nad 
fled. 

They brought with them two small ponies which I was 
to ride and, by half-past four in the morning, we were 
ready to be gone again. My escort from this place on 
were the eleven elders and deacons of the church, all 
being in readiness for the journey. I said to one of 
them, ‘‘ Well, if everything’s ready, let’s go.’’ He said, 
‘“We’re not quite ready yet. We always pray before we 
start,’’ and, standing there in the cold at half-past four 
on that March morning, he called on the oldest man to 
lead in prayer, and, though I could understand no word 
of what he said, I never listened to a prayer that went 
nearer home. 

Being put on one small pony with one man on either 
side to steady me and one leading my horse, we were off. 


206 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


I would ride one pony for a while and then another. 
There were four men who went on ahead watching the 
road, and three or four behind; for it was now more 
than eighteen hotirs since Yangtienfu had been called 
and it was no telling at what moment he might appear. 
So we went on and on and on without rest. It seemed 
as if I was like Tennyson’s brook, and would go on for- 
ever; but after nearly twenty hours of continuous travel- 
ling we reached Yenmo, where there was a magistrate 
and soldiers, and I was safe. 

There I met Mr. and Mrs. Gowman. Mr. Gowman 
was one of the men who had been taken from the station 
and had escaped the first night out. They had suffered 
the loss of all things but were exceedingly glad that Mr. 
Gowman had been able to escape. They were utterly 
dumbfounded when I went into the yard and Mr. Gow- 
man could only say, ‘‘Thank God! thank God!”’ 

There was a telegraph office there and I immediately 
sent word to Mrs. Shelton that I was free at last. The 
Governor also was quickly informed, and he immediately 
sent instructions that I was to be sent on without any 
delay whatever, under the escort of a hundred men, to 
meet an escort of two hundred which he was sending out, 

It was there that I first learned from Mr. Gowman of 
the rescue party that had been organized by Colonel 
Drysdale, who had been sent by the United States Gov- 
ernment to see if, in any way, my release could be ef- 
fected. I learned that the outposts of this party were 
at Uting, some four days toward the capital. They were 
also quickly informed of my escape, and the magistrate, 
with heavy escort, started that same afternoon to meet 
their party. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gowman, though comparatively safe in 
this place, knew not how long it might be before they 


ESCAPE 207 


would be able to return to their station, and decided to, 
go to the capital also. 

By the time everything was arranged it was too late 
to start that night; so arrangements were made to start 
the next morning. We travelled all day and the men 
were constantly on the lookout for any signs of Yang- 
tienfu. He had, two days before, fought a battle with 
them at a plain near Yenmo, and it was feared that he 
was coming back to try to capture the place. 

That night we stopped at a small village, sleeping on 
the floor, but provided with some bedding through the 
kindness of the Yenmo official. 

I had regretted very much on leaving Yenmo, parting 
with the elders and deacons who had escorted me thus 
far. But their homes and their interests were all back 
in the mission station to which they must go unprotected 
from Yangtienfu and his band. 

This first night the pain was again so great that I had 
to take opium. 


XXXIV 
HOME AGAIN 


URING the night strict watch was kept because 

1) it was feared that Yangtienfu might decide to 

take the whole group, soldiers and all, as it was 

a very great temptation should he be in the vicinity and 

a very good opportunity to secure arms and ammunition. 

Nothing occurred, however, and the next morning we 
were off again. 

During the day we met an additional company of five 
hundred soldiers who were a part of those who had been 
trying to surround him for days before I was dropped. 
The fact of the matter is that the soldiers have no very 
great incentive to apprehend him. They are fighting 
for about twenty cents a day. He and his band are 
fighting for their lives. 

That day, while coming around the pass of a small 
mountain, I could see across a small valley two hundred 
soldiers drawn up in the little village waiting to receive 
us. There was a man out in front of the soldiers walk- 
ing up and down who appeared to be dressed in Ameri- 
ean clothes. It was Dr. Osgood. He had been sent 
some two thousand miles by our Central China Mission 
to see if he could assist in any way. Neither one of us 
said a word. We simply clasped hands; that was all. 
From that time on I was taken care of as if I were a 
baby, which, in reality, I was. 

The old magistrate of Uting, who was in command of 

208 


HOME AGAIN 209 


this party, was very gracious and very kind. He is one 
of the magistrates of the old school, and is very efficient. 
He certainly knows how to handle Chinese, and the 
string of vilification and abuse he would pour forth 
upon the head of some delinquent attendant would have 
made the members of Yangtienfu’s band turn green 
with envy. 

He had brought out sedan chairs in abundance and 
here I was provided with a comfortable conveyance at 
last. He also provided one for Mrs. Gowman; but I 
envied Mr. Gowman his horse. 

That night we reached Long Gai, near where the first 
battle had been fought. On coming into the place I was 
reinstated in the room which I had formerly occupied, 
but under what different conditions! 

My feet had been on the ground for some time, the 
soles of my shoes having worn entirely through. Dr. 
Osgood, opening his grip, insisted on supplying me with 
a pair of shoes, for which I was very grateful. I already 
had Gowman’s underclothes on. Yangtienfu had given 
me a pair of socks, now I got Osgood’s shoes, a little 
later I got Thornton’s shirt, and, with something from 
Smith, I was almost complete, and was the only original, 
genuine composite. On arriving at Long Gai there were 
more folks with sore eyes who wanted to be attended to, 
but Dr. Osgood took them over, as well as all other ailing 
folk, and I was not permitted to take care of any. 

In this, as in everything else, Dr. Osgood relieved me 
of all care or anxiety in every way. He insisted on me 
having my food in bed and in other ways protected me 
all along the road. 

The next day, after a very long journey, we were near- 
ing Uting. About a mile out from the place I was met 
by a young man who introduced himself as Thornton. 


210 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


He is the Standard Oil Company’s representative in 
Yunnanfu, a big, full-blooded American and very effi- 
cient. Smith had not come out, as he was not feeling 
well. Mr. Smith was the Far Eastern representative of 
the Chicago Tribune, and had joined Dr. Osgood in 
Shanghai when Osgood was starting on the journey. 
Mr. Smith was afterward very ill with fever and at one 
time his life was despaired of. The kindness shown by 
all these men, Osgood, Thornton, and Smith, I can never 
repay. 

I was starving to death for something made of wheat. 
I had eaten rice until it seemed impossible to eat any 
more. When I arrived in Uting Smith had a box of 
crackers, but ten minutes later he didn’t have them. 
Connection was made at once by Thornton on the tele- 
phone with the capital, and Colonel Drysdale and Mrs. 
Shelton were informed of our arrival. 

Letters were also awaiting me. It appeared as if I 
were almost home. I talked for a few minutes with Mrs. 
Shelton over the ’phone. She had heard through Shensi 
of my whiskers. One of her requests was that they be 
disposed of at once; so by the help of Osgood’s scissors 
and Thornton’s razor, I was again transformed from 
Bolsheviki into an American. 

The Uting magistrate was very insistent that we spend 
two or three days with him and celebrate. This, how- 
ever, we very courteously declined, insisting that it 
would be necessary to go on the next morning. The 
people worked almost all night dismantling the rooms 
they had oceupied, taking down telephones and packing 
up; and at a fairly early hour, under command of the 
old magistrate, who still insisted on accompanying us 
into the capital, and with a heavy guard of soldiers, we 
were off again. It had been decided that in order to 


HOME AGAIN 211 


make the journey in two days we should travel a part of 
the night, which we did, arriving at our stopping-place 
at about midnight, where the magistrate, who had heard 
of our coming, had prepared a great feast. I was so in- 
capacitated, however, that I was at once put to bed by 
Dr. Osgood. The rest of the men were of a similar mind 
and would have much preferred going to bed also, but 
the feast had to be eaten and it was more than two 
o’clock in the morning before they finished. 

After some little delay the next morning, we were off 
again. About four o’clock in the afternoon we topped 
the last pass and could look down into the great plain 
and in the distance see the great lake, on whose shore 
Yunnanfu is situated. Not far below the pass, which is 
some four or five miles from town, we began to meet dif- 
ferent members of the community coming out to meet us. 
We stopped in a small village some three miles from the 
city to rest for a few minutes before going on in. 

It was while sitting in the back of a little tea shop 
that I was suddenly aware of some one standing by my 
side. He put his hand on mine and then there was a 
great burst of sobbing; he lowered his head on the table 
and cried on and on. It was Drashi, one of our Tibetan 
boys, who had come with us from Batang. 

Going on a little farther we kept meeting more and 
more people, and amongst them were Doris and Dor- 
othy. Doris had outrun Dorothy, and when she saw me 
she came running, waving her hands, and her first words 
were, ‘‘Oh, Papa, God does answer prayer, doesn’t He?’’ 
I replied, ‘‘Of course He does.”’ 

All human agencies had failed, and it was only in an- 
swer to the prayers of the many friends that I was pre- 
served. 

A little further along came Dorothy and Andru. 


212 PIONEERING IN TIBET 


Andru was crying too. They said that they had feared 
that they would never see me again. 

Again I met a company of twelve people, only one of 
whom I had ever seen before. After shaking hands with 
them, as I was carried on, they started a hymn of thanks- 
giving. A half-hour later I was carried into the French 
hospital where Mrs. Shelton had gone to prepare for me. 
She was waiting in the courtyard, and Dr. Osgood went 
on in so as not to witness our meeting. 

The next morning Dr. Velette, of the French Consular 
Hospital, assisted by Dr. Osgood and Dr. Bradley, per- 
formed an operation on my neck. Not deeming it advi- 
sable to entirely remove the growth, they took out only 
apart. The next nine days were spent recuperating in 
the hospital. Within a day or two I was able to see my 
friends. 

Shortly, in order that they might be with me, the girls 
were allowed to come and take their meals in the hos- 
pital. Mrs. Shelton had been permitted to room there 
from the first. 

IT improved quite rapidly and hoped that I would be 
able to return to Batang. Dr. Osgood and the other 
doctors were very insistent that I go on to America. I 
protested quite vigorously to Dr. Osgood on this matter, 
especially as to the disarrangement of all my plans for 
going into the interior. He administered what was per- 
haps a much needed rebuke when he said, ‘‘ You don’t 
seem to think that the Lord can perhaps manage things 
as well as you can.’’ 

During my stay there I had also the privilege of see- 
ing again Father Bailly, who came to visit me. 

To Father Bailly of the French Catholic Mission; to 
Mr. Nagadir, the French Consul; to Colonel Drysdale, 
of the United States Army, Military Attaché at Peking; 


HOME AGAIN 213 


to Dr. Osgood, of the Central China Christian Mission; 
to Mr. Smith, the Far Eastern representative of the 
Chicago Tribune, and to the whole host of friends who 
so kindly assisted Mrs. Shelton and the children in Yun- 
nanfu, and to the great number of people who used their 
best efforts in America to secure my release, I wish to 
make grateful acknowledgment. I do not even know 
who all of them were; I am constantly hearing of new 
ones. Will they, too, please accept my grateful thanks? 

After nine days’ stay in Yunnanfu we were again on 
our way, this time by train. Dr. Osgood very graciously 
made all arrangements and cared for us all. He had so 
much to attend to that Doris named him ‘‘Patience and 
Long-suffering.’’ He stayed with us until we reached 
Hong-kong and, as it appeared as if we might have to 
wait there for a considerable length of time before being 
able to secure passage home, he went on. 

We were very fortunate, however, in securing passage 
by the next boat, as a cabin was vacated at the last min- 
ute, and on April 26th, once more a united family, we 
were again on American soil. 

Letters and telegrams of sympathy and congratulation 
poured in upon us from all parts of the country. Going 
at once to Rochester, Minnesota, I underwent a second 
operation, with the complete removal of the growth in 
my neck. 

From Rochester we went almost immediately to the 
home of my father and mother at Enid, Oklahoma, and 
the long journey was done. 


XXXV 
COME ON! 


HE long fight for Tibet has continued for many 
decades and will be carried on and on until at 
last it is His. 

Lying there in the heart of Asia, self-satisfied, held in 
by the greatest mountains on earth, not knowing nor 
wanting to know what is outside, the Tibetans have 
rested for hundreds of years in the firm belief that theirs 
is the country of perfection. They are now beginning 
to wake up and to realize that other folk have contribu- 
tions to make to their welfare. 

The opportunity now is such as it has never been 
before. The feeling toward Westerners is far more 
kindly than it has ever been. 

There is an opportunity for any young man to utilize 
all the abilities with which he has been blessed in meet- 
ing the problems that he will have to solve; and he will 
find use for others which he has not. 

Let no young man think that it was a mistake that he 
should bury his particularly fine abilities in mission work 
in Asia; for it requires in the service of the Kingdom of 
God just as high an order of intelligence, just as great 
concentration, just as fine tact, and just as much 
‘‘punch’’ as are required to run any great business con- 
cern. Come on, young men, and let’s help to make the 
last nation on earth a part of the Kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. 


Printed in the United States of Amertca 


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